Nigeria, April 27 -- My ill-fated country, those you have affronted

with them you must be equalized by sharing the same affront.

Those you have denied

human rights,

Allowed to stand before you but never invited in -

with all of them you must be equalized by sharing the same affront

Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali (Song Offerings) 108 (1910)

Nigeria is a country of pious people and sacred cows. On Fridays, its mosques are filled with prayer and Tafsir. On Sundays, the churches take over with song offerings and evocative homilies. The illegitimate child of the menage a trois between George Taubman Goldie; his employee, Frederick Lugard; and their shared mistress, Flora Shaw, it was a matter of fate that the country would live in inter...