Nigeria, March 23 -- Sometimes it feels like we have been childhood friends. That we have known each other forever. For over 30 years since our paths crossed, I can't remember how many times I've called him "Louis," much less "Louis Osaretin Odion."

Even now, it feels awkward to write it. I call him by the name that the closest circle of his friends has come to know and call him for nearly three decades: "Capacity!"

And that's what he calls me too, even though he retains the proprietary right to the moniker. He earned it from the odysseys of a life of sailing against the wind when many of his mates walked a road paved with comfort and relative safety.

His struggles through early school life in Ikare Akoko, Ondo State (where his parents...