Nigeria, May 21 -- President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's appointment of 39-year-old computer scientist Prof. Segun Aina as JAMB registrar in place of Prof. Ishaq Oloyede has reignited the familiar fatigue around federal appointments. As someone who often counters accusations of Tinubu's South West favoritism by arguing that most Nigerians do the same when given the chance, I still know that one wrong doesn't justify another.

The same contradictory value system that turns leaders into heroes for securing jobs for their kinsmen, as Prof. Ali Pantami recently admitted doing for Gombe, is what fuels the contemptuous question thrown at public officials: "What did he do for his town and people?" That expectation makes nepotism feel rational, even ine...