Nigeria, March 24 -- If like me, you have this bad habit of reading every inscription on buses or on walls, you probably would have seen this inscription on hospital walls: WE CARE; GOD HEALS! That was what I remembered that Saturday morning in Kaduna, as I lay on the surgeon's operating table. I silently prayed to God to take control.

Before entering the theatre, the anaesthetist had asked me what I ate that morning. I raised my eyebrows. What kind of question is this? The medical team had warned me the previous day when I went for the pre-surgery protocols not to eat anything after 10 pm . So, why are you asking me what I had eaten, I asked the anaesthecist.

"Oh, never mind, it's a routine question," he responded.

But let me begin th...