Of Sheikh Ahmad and Toyin Falola: Opening Spaces of Knowledge, By Afis Ayinde Oladosu
More of such interactions and engagements remains a desideratum.
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…what this interviewed has achieved, in the main, is that it opened new spaces of dialogue and understanding within, among and across faiths. It has long been my argument that the first step towards building global peace is the liquidation of spaces of ignorance of and about the other and what he holds dear.
The event was conceived to be a refreshingly different departure from the run-of-the-mill meet-up on Islam. Or how else might one begin to reflect on a interview session or rather a conference, if you will, that had Professor Falola as the preceptor and Sheikh Abdulrahman as the facilitator. The first, the interviewer – an intellectual and generic scholar; the second, the interviewee – a consummate practitioner and missionary of Islam. The first, a world-renowned scholar of African history and culture; the
Taming the Unbridled Four Horsemen: Ebora of Owu and the African Renaissance, By Toyin Falola 9 min read
Through his catalogue of experiences in the service of Nigeria and the African continent, Obasanjo has shaped and earned for himself a poetic license like none other, in a way that transcends the African regional polity to the global. With this license, his assessment in the service of the country, Nigeria, is often overlooked by many vibrant minds each time he wields his big ink-stick on the evolving polity.
It was the nineteenth-century German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, who described poets as shameless with their experiences, as they adopt and exploit these experiences in the beautiful light of lines that turn them into aesthetics. Although not a poet in the conventional or literary sense of the term, His Excellency, Chief Olusegun Aremu Okikiola Matthew Obasanjo, leads his world like one. As he would always say, “I am an epitome of Grace.” Baba Iy