Nigeria, May 11 -- A man, convinced his wife was unfaithful, visited a village juju man for answers. The diviner demanded sand from the man's yard for a ritual. Two weeks later, the man returned with the sample. After incantations, the juju man revealed shocking truths: the man's children were not his, his daughter was entangled with five men, and his wife carried his brother's child. Instead of despair, the man laughed. He confessed he'd forgotten his own soil and dug sand from the juju man's compound. The diviner's horrified cry-"JESUS CHRIST!"-echoed the irony: the rot was not just in one home, but in the very ground of the "healer" himself.

This allegory mirrors Kenya and Nigeria-two nations where citizens and leaders alike dig into ...