Nigeria, June 16 -- The offer was irresistible.

"Louis, I know you must be tired of hotel food by now," he teased with a patriarchal grin, then beckoning, "follow me make I show you better place to chop."

After meandering through a labyrinth of rain-sprinkled streets of Asaba this afternoon for some minutes, we finally repaired to a local buka oozing mouth-watering aroma.

As soon as Uncle Sam (Chief Sam Amuka Pemu) sauntered in, trailed by Gbenga Adefaye (then president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors), Eze Anaba and yours sincerely, the buka - a nondescript bungalow - suddenly grew quiet, in reverence, if not awe, of an illustrious son of Delta State whose easily recognisable face frames his national celebrity.

The big masquerade ha...