Nigeria, Sept. 23 -- My Essex story began in November 1994, when the British Council in Nigeria sponsored me under the auspices of the Constitutional Rights Project (CRP) to undertake a study tour of human rights centres, organisations, and civil society initiatives across the UK and Northern Ireland. This included a visit to the University of Essex, where I met the late Professor Kevin Boyle, a distinguished scholar known worldwide for his pioneering work in international human rights law.

I also had a 50-minute talk with the MA in Human Rights and LLM in International Human Rights Law students on my human rights work during a most turbulent time in Nigeria's history - the General Sani Abacha regime. I returned in 1997 to pursue an LLM ...