Nigeria, April 1 -- A Nigerian whistleblower's sour-sweet situation: recognition abroad while struggling at home.

Darkness has a peculiar habit. It rarely travels alone. It gathers allies. Silence. Fear. Complicity. Soon enough, a crowd forms around the shadows, and before long the darkness begins to look normal.

Nigeria, it has to be said, has developed an unfortunate genius for this arrangement. And sadly, darkness is not a metaphor in these parts. It is too much with us for even the bravest poets to try to evoke in stanzas foreboding doom. We have perfected systems that put out the lights for wrongdoing to pass unnoticed, and for the public to grow accustomed to the gloom.

Which is why the story of Yisa Usman matters.

Not merely be...