Nigeria, Nov. 20 -- For us, the sudden demise of General Sani Abacha in the early hours of 8 June, 1998 (a Monday) would seem a God-send that effectively cleared the cloud of dark foreboding that had begun to gather the previous day.

Sunday Concord's front-page lead that weekend had screamed "How Useni and Gwarzo teleguide parties." A transparently suicidal gambit at an illiberal time, when bullets and bombs were being liberally dispensed against dissents in Nigeria.

By conventional wisdom, when fear envelopes the land, certain truths are supposed to be borne only in mind, not told or written in cold print. Those who had dared otherwise under bloodthirsty Abacha, either ended in premature graves, exile or the gulag.

But the Sunday Conc...