Nigeria, Sept. 13 -- I sat down recently with Major General Lawrence Onoja, retired. We were discussing security in Northern Nigeria-banditry, insurgency, kidnapping and communities sleeping with one eye open. Then our conversation strayed.

I reminded him of the Zaria Road Stadium in Jos, which he set in motion as military governor of Plateau State between 1986 and 1988. Nearly four decades later, it remains unfinished. Onoja has since served the Army and the nation, retired and watched a son become a General. A military generation has reproduced itself; the stadium has not produced a completion certificate.

Then he struck the real nail. He recalled their struggle to preserve the old New Nigeria Development Company-NNDC-and how, proper...