Nigeria, Dec. 9 -- On 26 November, Nigeria's president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, announced in a statement personally signed by him that he had "decided to declare a nationwide security emergency" to be accompanied by some measures, including the recruitment by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and the Armed Forces of 20,000 and 50,000 new personnel respectively. In the fortnight preceding the announcement, a flurry of frightening terror incidents had created among populations and communities around the country a heightened state of fear. It also reinforced the perception of a normalisation of insecurity and of the traumas associated with it.

Yet, the text and terms of the president's announcement were odd, to say the least.

Nigeria's 1999 Consti...