As the University of Abuja is set to confer an honorary Doctorate degree on Professor Toyin Falola today I wish to use this medium to congratulate him on this well deserved honour.
In 2008 when he came to the University of Abuja to deliver a key note address at an international conference on arts he exhibited a remarkable uncommon humanism by awarding the driver who drove him a scholarship to study at the University level. The person who drove him at that time had no university of degree.
This remarkable show of interest on someone on the other side of opportunity divide is such that it showed how we can care notwithstanding our economic status in life. It is such show of interest that contemporary Africa sorely needs to mitigate the social challenges of the time.
At various levels we can locate people who understand that only humanism can actually lead to nationalism that some people pontificate as religion disregarding the real manure from where it springs from. For example -Consider an Oby Ezewkesisli who, after functioning as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria would lead several demonstrations in favour of Nigerians "of the bush"- those kidnapped young girls that live in another unimaginable world of fear and terror -for over a decade now. Or a Chidi Odinkalu who would shout against legal injustices even when it does not touch him directly.
These inspiring ethics of connecting with the other at the level of sympathy and empathy are what we all need- if Africa will shift forward. Our humanism must disrupt differences or it is none at all or at best a weak one!
Congratulations to Professor Falola
Lawrence ogbo Ugwuanyi
University of Abuja.
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