Nigeria, Oct. 4 -- One does not hold a gun carelessly.

Fifteen years ago, when Nigeria turned 51, I borrowed that Yoruba warning to describe a country dangerously casual with the loaded weapon of nationhood. The gun itself was not necessarily the problem. The problem was the hand holding it.

Then, I asked whether Nigeria could recover the character and strength to hold her head up. I wrote about corruption, failing schools, epileptic electricity, insecurity, unemployment, maternal deaths, institutional decay and, perhaps most worrying, our fading capacity for outrage.

Today Nigeria is 66. The gun is still in our hands. Has our grip become steadier?

That question deserves something better than the annual Independence Day quarrel betwe...