Nigeria, March 1 -- Let us celebrate Professor Benjamin Obiefuna Nwabueze, one of the great legal minds of our generation.

It is difficult to speak of Nwabueze, except in superlatives. His grounding was in constitutional law. He was a renowned scholar, a university teacher and mentor to many, a prolific author of many books, an adviser to governments across the African continent, and a drafter of democratic constitutions.

The encomiums showered on Nwabueze from all sides are well deserved - and so are some of the criticisms. Nwabueze was not a god with feet of clay. He was thoroughly human, with his full share of the positives and negatives to which all flesh are heir. And when it is all added up, when his achievements are weighed again...