And I believe that the best learning process of any kind of craft is just to look at the work of others.

After the death of the sadistic dictator Gen. Sanni Abacha in 1998, Nigeria underwent a one-year transitional military administration headed by Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, who uncharacteristically bowed out precisely on the promised date for military disengagement. Did the military truly disengage, however? No.

Military dictatorship, you can focus on it, you can fight it directly. It's a band of power-driven people.

Colonialism bred an innate arrogance, but when you undertake that sort of imperial adventure, that arrogance gives way to a feeling of accommodativeness. You take pride in your openness.

It took a long time, but I have learned that you just can't take anything you want out of life without putting something back in exchange.

In court, judges tell people that their conviction carries a sentence of years, or probation. The truth is far more terrible. People convicted of crimes often become social outcasts for life, finding it difficult or impossible to rent an apartment, get a job, adopt children, access public benefits, serve on juries, or vote.

A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience.

I still remember with gratitude a series for children on everyday life where we learned about the games children in other times had played and the food they ate.