Nigeria, April 26 -- My senior associate, Engineer Suleman Ndaman of SON, fondly called Yan Sule reached out to ask if I would be in Bida last weekend for the one-million-man march organized in solidarity with Governor Umar Bago of Niger State, a public spectacle meant to signal both loyalty and belief in leadership. I told him I would try to be there for him. We had agreed to meet by 5 p.m. on Sunday, but he arrived a little after 6, apologizing with the familiar urgency of a father's duty,, he had just taken his daughter back to FGGC Bida for resumption.



It was a simple explanation, almost routine, yet it stirred a deeper curiosity in me, one that lingered quietly until the noise of the gathering faded and conversation became more ...