Nigeria, Oct. 10 -- In July 2007, I attended the second session of the Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in Thailand. It was my first real encounter with Bangkok, and I remember the city for its contradictions: the squalor and the splendour, the disorder and the beauty, the old pressed against the new. It was a city I could not easily forget.

Nearly two decades later, Bangkok is back in my mind for a very different reason.

Next week, Nigeria's economic czars will travel to Bangkok. Dr. Taiwo Oyedele, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, will board an aircraft, carrying with him a pipe of promise, packaged in a polished presentation. Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, the Minister of I...