Nigeria, Dec. 24 -- Sovereignty is not achieved through announcements. It is constructed through sequencing. States fail not because they lack ambition, but because they attempt everything at once, in the wrong order, under the illusion that intent can substitute for structure.

Every country that has successfully insulated itself from external coercion followed a pattern, sometimes consciously, sometimes instinctively, but always sequentially. Nigeria's error has been to pursue outcomes without foundations, reforms without buffers, and liberalization without resilience.

To take sovereignty seriously is to accept an uncomfortable truth: some freedoms must be delayed in order to secure others.

1. Start With Energy, or Start With Failure...