Nigeria, May 26 -- The Department of State Services (DSS), a public institution created by law to maintain the internal security of the country, has gone to court over what is, at best, the loud thoughts of one man. Prof. Pat Utomi, politician and public intellectual, recently gave notice that he was going to put in place a shadow government that would put the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on its toes.

Utomi felt that the government was getting away with a lot of excesses and misdeeds because Nigerians are too permissive to recognize or notice when a government that is supposed to serve them is veering off the track. Since Nigerians are not alert enough in this regard, Utomi reasoned that a shadow government would fill the ga...