Nigeria: Travelogue – Encounter With Governor Chukwuma Soludo

Segun Odegbami and Chukwuma Soludo slip into animated discussion about Christian Chukwu, football and Nigeria as they fly to Abuja

It is yesterday. The pain from the death of my friend, Christian Chukwu, lingers. It weighs me down. I hardly sleep through the night with a headache.

I am thinking of the meaninglessness of life, of human mortality, and the inevitability of death that ‘will come, when it will come’.

I wake early. My heart is pounding with grief. I head to the airport for my early morning flight to Abuja.

What happens next is fortuitous, a divine script. At the airport, I am allocated seat number 1C. We soon start to board. I take my front row seat. Others follow.

Then Governor Chukwuma Soludo embarks. His small retinue…