Nigeria, April 1 -- Introduction

When I was admitted to the Department of Political Science in 1980 as a freshman, straight from secondary school, Professor Humphrey Nwosu was one of the lecturers we encountered. He was the head of the sub-department of Public Administration, which owned the Local Government building that housed the Department of Political Science.

Though he was an energetic and ebullient man, he wasn't exactly very popular with us for two main reasons: One, is that he normally fixed his lectures at 7 a.m. in the morning, and he never failed to show up for classes. He would in fact often be in the class before that 7 a.m., which led to some of us gossiping behind his back about a man who preferred to come jumping up and...