Nigeria, Nov. 14 -- The President of the Bridge Club, my dear friend and brother, Abdulhakeem Mustapha (SAN), members of the Executive Committee of The Bridge Club, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I wish to begin by expressing how honoured I am to be invited to serve as chairman of this occasion by such an esteemed body of professionals and business leaders. Quite often in Africa, we make the mistake of failing to tap the experience of former office holders; the moment you depart, it's out of sight, out of mind. Or worse, you become anathema for the simple crime of no longer having an official designation.

However, many of the polities that we look up to have devised ways of embracing and transiting public office holders into think t...