Nigeria, Oct. 5 -- Think of a Nigerian born in 1999, the year civilian rule came back. That person is twenty-seven now. They have never lived under a military government. But they may have finished school and not found a job. They have probably learned to plan trips around insecurity, and they almost certainly run a generator at home. Democracy has been part of their whole lives. Whether it has given them any real say over that life is another matter.

That is the strange thing about Nigeria's Fourth Republic. Civilian government has lasted, but citizens' power over it remains uncertain. We count elections, administrations and anniversaries. We should also count how often institutions protect ordinary people, public money becomes public b...