Nigeria, April 19 -- When he was inaugurated as Nigeria's elected president on 29 May 2015, Muhammadu Buhari identified three priority issues for his immediate attention. In the order in which he itemised them, these were: insecurity, persistent corruption and energy. President Buhari asserted that he would tackle these "head on" and, switching mental gears into his role as the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), promised that "Nigerians will not regret that they have entrusted national responsibility to us." He got that wrong but let's not get ahead of the story.

A mere 200 kilometres away, on the same day and at a similar event in Kaduna, at his inauguration as the elected governor of Kaduna State, one of Buhari's acolytes i...