Nigeria, April 22 -- "We should all give our best to public service, and be grateful because it is a privilege to be called upon,'' he would cheerfully declare, every now and then, at our weekly meetings of the Delta State Executive Council. Amos Agbe Utuama, a professor and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and deputy governor of Delta State (2007-2015), an erudite scholar-administrator, was a towering legal figure, with congenial demeanor, whose infectious smile, hearty fatherly figure, and moral leadership, animated meetings. I had the pleasure of being a member of the Delta State Executive Council as the State's commissioner for information, and worked under Mr Utuama when he was the deputy governor of the oil-producing state.

However...