Nigeria, Feb. 17 -- When veteran politician, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, and foremost publisher, Chief Joop Berkhout joined the ancestral realm within days of each other, Nigerians were unanimous in their verdict that the two deaths truly diminished us all. In both cases, it can be said without equivocation that the men lived for something.

Last year, on the occasion of his 95th birthday, I described Adebanjo as a member of a vanishing breed of men and women who chose the straight and narrow path of rectitude in public life and who were not afraid to stand alone if necessary in the pursuit of the greatest good for the greatest number.

It is not given to all men to live for a cause. Some men live for nothing and die as if they never lived. When ...