Nigeria, April 15 -- Yesterday, the government commissioned a glass-and-steel building in Abuja, yet before a single desk is occupied, it must now commission something far more important: the legitimacy of those empowered to govern it. In the heart of the Federal Capital now rises the new headquarters of the Nigeria Revenue Service, an imposing monument of ambition, authority, and fiscal resolve. It is more than architecture. It is a visceral declaration of intent. Its gleaming facade is designed to communicate to Nigerians, investors, and the wider world that the age of leakages, inefficiency, and weak tax administration is finally giving way to a new order of discipline and reform.

The symbolism of this structure is powerful. For an a...