Nigeria, May 11 -- In today's Nigeria, survival has become an extreme sport, and the vehicle of that survival-quite literally-is a private car now moonlighting as a commercial taxi. From naval officers to bankers, marketers to construction workers, Nigerians are turning their once-prized vehicles into lifelines. If this isn't a national emergency, then what is?

When sleek Sport Utility Vehicles begin ferrying passengers at Lagos bus stops not as an act of kindness but as a means of economic rescue, the nation should collectively hang its head in shame. What we see playing out across the country is not innovation-it is desperation masquerading as entrepreneurship. This is not the Nigeria we were promised. Once symbols of upward mobility, ...