SIR Toyin:
Many thanks for your usual candor in re-echoing the obvious about our brilliant and indomitable colleague (Professor Samuel Zalanga of Bethel University in Minnesota). I thought that my spouse (University of Oregon VP Alex-Assensoh) and I were the only USA-AFRICA DIALOGUE beneficiaries, who admire Dr. Zalanga and his erudite and dynamic postings. in fact, for the manuscript of my intellectual memoirs that Pan-African University Publishers will publish, I sought Dr. Zalanga's permission to quote effusively from a most-touching and brilliant posting he shared with all of us upon the brutal murder of his younger brother back in Nigeria. He was obviously writing about a most gruesome ritual murder, which left his dear brother to be buried with his head missing! Yet, Dr. Zalanga wrote that posting with dignity and his usual brilliance!
Using the words INDOMITABLE and EURIDITE to describe Dr. Zalanga today for his timely and much-needed postings did remind me very much of Dr. Tai Solarin of Ikenne Mayflower College fame and his 1960s' weekly THINKING WITH YOU column in DAILY TIMES of the old Kakawa Street, Lagos, Nigeria. Dr. Solarin's cherished name today honors the Nigeria-based Tai Solarin University of Education, which honored you (SIR Toyin) with one of your much-deserved, several university degrees, bestowed on you honorary causa!
In fact, whenever my spouse and I reflect on the brilliant and wholesome postings of a very select number of our Nigerian brothers and sisters (including Dr. Zalanga; Vice-Chancellor Aluko; Sister Obioma of Indiana as well as Akinola of Oxford; Sister Nwando; Brothers Folu of Michigan, Udogu of the Carolinas; Aka of Illinois; Femi of Maine; and , of course, you, SIR Toyin), we quietly wonder in unison and, in the process, ask ourselves: Can't the great nation of Nigeria -- with the green eagle as her national symbol – use her "eagle might" to tap some of these truly brilliant sons and daughters for national leadership, instead of the usual light-timber personalities and caricatures we often see on the leadership scene of Nigeria?
Brother Samuel Zalanga, always know that your brilliance and indomitable spirit place you in special company, hence many of us will not be surprised one day, if you are referred to as: His Excellency Professor Samuel Zalanga of Nigeria and Africa! Keep up the brilliant intellectual job because you make all of us PROUD, no matter where we come from and irrespective of our diverse intellectual disciplines! After all, on Africa's political scene, we need new Mandelas, Nkrumahs, Nyereres, Azikiwes, Kenyattas, Nassers, Sankaras, and Tajudeens, among others!
A.B. Assensoh.
Sent: Saturday, November 7, 2015 6:46 AM
To: dialogue
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Moderator's Gratitude: Samuel Zalanga
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
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