Nigeria, July 31 -- One of the reasons I always return to my professional starting point in the Presidency is essentially because it constituted a seminal grounding foundational space where several political, non-political and technocratic actors hammered the rehabilitation of the Nigerian state. Indeed, IBB drew into his kitchen cabinet a significant number of intellectuals from the corps of political scientists in Nigeria including professors Omo Omoruyi, Bolaji Akinyemi, Humphrey Nwosu, Ibrahim Gambari, Sam Oyovbaire, Tunde Adeniran, Tunji Olagunju, Adele Jinadu, A. D. Yahaya, Jonah Elaigwu inclusive, among others.

It was in the seminal climate of policy work where these scholars worked with a legion of others within a multidisciplina...