Nigeria, June 8 -- In a single week, the earth grew quieter as three of Nigeria's towering figures answered the inevitable call. Prof Jibrin Aminu, Justice Mohammed Uwais, and Sir Mike Ejeagha,men whose names evoke different memories in different circles, but whose footprints are etched into the soil of this nation.

Prof Jibrin Aminu passed at 85, and with him went one of Nigeria's sharpest academic and administrative minds. A professor of medicine, minister of education, and one-time ambassador to the U.S., Jibrin lived at the intersection of scholarship and service.

His grasp of public policy and education reform was deep, even if at times he bore the burden of navigating a system resistant to vision. If anything, his life reminds us ...