Nigeria, Dec. 12 -- If it seems like only yesterday when the founder of LEADERSHIP, Sam Nda-Isaiah, passed away, it's because he is still here in the present tense. Yet you might disagree if you are looking for him in the wrong place. Let me lessen your confusion.

If, for example, you still hope he'd call at 2.30 a.m. to wake you up and ask why you're asleep at that time, which he did without a hint of irony, and such calls have stopped since, then you may consider him part of the past.

There are other footprints. His hearty laughter, or the echo of his stuttering voice as he marshalled facts in a heated argument. These idiosyncrasies, now silenced since that 11 December Friday night five years ago, may also seem like a distant part of ...