Nigeria, April 15 -- It is yesterday. The pain from the death of my friend, Christian Chukwu, lingers. It weighs me down. I hardly sleep through the night with a headache.

I am thinking of the meaninglessness of life, of human mortality, and the inevitability of death that 'will come, when it will come'.

I wake early. My heart is pounding with grief. I head to the airport for my early morning flight to Abuja.

What happens next is fortuitous, a divine script. At the airport, I am allocated seat number 1C. We soon start to board. I take my front row seat. Others follow.

Then Governor Chukwuma Soludo embarks. His small retinue of aides indicate his status. He is wearing a simple traditional Igbo attire - a red cap on a red Isiagu and whi...