Nigeria, June 12 -- I encountered the relic of his presence long before I met Sam Amuka, known as Uncle Sam. Inside a room in the far corner of the old Kudeti PUNCH building, predominantly constructed of plywood and steel frames, there was a wooden armchair that had been a fixture in Uncle Sam's office when he served as managing editor.

When I joined PUNCH as a staff writer eight years after his departure in 1981, this piece of furniture was in my first office, sitting like a totem in a shrine, while stories about Uncle Sam floated in whispers.

The stories could not be told freely in PUNCH at the time, because of the bitter dispute between Uncle Sam and his friend and publisher, Olu Aboderin, which would later end in an out-of-court set...