Nigeria, Oct. 19 -- The truth is simple: We cannot modernise the Nigerian state until we dispense with spendthrift governments. This is as much a statement about our governments' preference for pharaonic projects (steel mills, refineries, roads that lead to nowhere, etc.) as it is about our ability as a people to walk back ideas that once looked good on paper and in left-wing discussion circles (import substitution industrialisation, for example) only to turn damp squibs when the tyre hits the tarmac. If it, then, is a discussion about the efficiency of the public sector, is it also an invitation to look at the mix of government spending?

With recurrent spending a disproportionately high component of public expenditure for as long as I c...