NIGERIA, Dec. 9 -- I have been asking if whatever President Bola Tinubu did in Cotonou on Sunday is worth celebrating. My mind keeps racing to the now extinct town of Apa and how its legend, the one who could have saved the town, abandoned it to help other villages and towns survive to the detriment of his own place of birth.

The legend is short. Ogun, the god of iron, whom many praise as Ogun the one from, history says, was never a native of Ire. His hometown is known as. But the town is no more because its neighbours waged war against it till no single soul remained.

According to the story, a renowned Babalawo, who would have saved the town, also failed because he did not follow the instructions given to him by Ifa. When Olo set out o...