Nigeria, July 27 -- The late General Buhari was a man who, on two occasions, was welcomed into office by Nigerians who dared to hope for a better country. The first was in December 1983, and the second was 32 years later, in 2015. I do not want to include 2019, because it was a defining moment when those Nigerians who were believed to be honest proved themselves wrong. Unlike President Goodluck Jonathan, who had four years earlier told the nation that his ambition was not worth the blood of a single Nigerian and conceded defeat, these self-styled men of integrity held on to power legitimately lost and cared not if Nigerians' blood was shed in the process. They just didn't give a damn.

I was ecstatic at Buhari's ascendancy to power on the...