Nigeria, June 9 -- In a country and a season in which candour is not always seen as a virtue, those who make it the currency of their daily lives are either idolised, endangered or idolised into endangerment. On the Nigerian streets, a person who addresses issues of public significance with candour can be described as having "broken the table." As a figure of speech, this usage is a back-handed compliment for bucking a national habit of dressing up reality in a bodyguard of avoidance.

Tables, however, can be useless without a chair or a bench. When the table gets scattered, the bench that accompanies it can suddenly become of limited utility. To default to a Nigerianism, lawyers and benches are like five and six. Judges and magistrates a...