Nigeria, July 13 -- On Tuesday, 1 July, while travelling with him from Enugu to Aba, his phone kept on ringing endlessly. Typical of him, Bart Nnaji took every call and addressed each caller patiently, carefully, and politely. One call struck me in particular. It was a widow from his rural community, who reported that her husband's kinsmen had decided to seize her village compound, leaving her and her grown-up children with no ancestral home.

Wondering why the local folks should take such an oppressive step, he quickly made inquiries which revealed that the kinsmen were not keen on seizing the widow's land. They were not happy that since she lost her husband, a successful and well-educated professional, about 10 years ago, she and her ch...