Nigeria, Feb. 4 -- Alcohol. That loyal friend who visits quietly, overstays loudly, and leaves you with a bill you do not remember approving.

I met alcohol in college. Like many bad decisions, it arrived disguised as freedom, maturity, and social confidence. The first drink did not taste nice. Nobody tells you that. You learn to drink the way children learn to like vegetables; through pressure and performance.

Soon, alcohol became part of the timetable; lectures during the day and Philosophy at night; deep discussions that nobody remembered the following morning. We solved world problems between 10 pm and 3 am and forgot the solutions by breakfast.

I drank heavily. Very heavily. The kind of drinking that starts in the evening and ends...