OWOLOWO

  June 12: Nigeria’s 25-Year Democratic Journey Kudirat Abiola, M.B.O Owolowo Snr and Wole Soyinka  Nigeria is on the 25th lap — silver jubilee — of its democratic journey, since the handover by the military junta in 1999. There are crucial events preceding what is now celebrated as Nigeria’s Democracy Day on June 12 that must be acknowledged for posterity. Following the free and fair June 12, 1993 presidential elections, M.K.O. Abiola was effectively president-elect. Because of Abiola’s clout and renowned philanthropy, the June 12 elections garnered international attention. When Babangida annulled the election on June 23, 1993, without any justifiable cause or reasonable explanation, the heat from his political faux pas was so intense that he had to leave office on August 26, 1993. As Babangida decided to ‘ step aside ’, he bizarrely constituted an impuissant Interim National Government headed by Ernest Shonekan. Just 83 days into the interim government, a deposition occ...

  The Computer Maker Analogy     The Computer Maker Analogy is the anatomization of the inner-workings of the computer via the creationism context. To fully appreciate The Creator contextually, the dynamics of a computer's creation and operation will be adopted. The processes involved in a computer's operational lifecycle gives an insight into the process of creation. Typically, the computer has various interoperating units that make it function. Some of the main components include the Motherboard, Central Processing Unit (CPU), Random Access Memories (RAM), Hard Drive, Video/Graphics Card, Monitor and Processor.   The objective of mentioning these components is not to go into the academic depths of computer science. Rather, the crux of highlighting these units is to establish that, within a computer are various interoperable hardware and software components that assist with its functionality. Following a design process, a computer manufacturer or maker, makes a...

  Matters of The Soul The soul and its composition are one of the many unknowns that confound science. Mankind has long pondered on matters of the soul. For instance, Aristotle described the soul from the “actuality” premise and stated, “The soul, then, must be substance as the form of a natural body that is potentially alive.” From that point onwards, there have been various propositions.  As scientists continue to grapple with the matter, there are scientific studies that tend to confine the soul to neuroscience and psychological concepts. For example, the quantum theory of consciousness concentrates on understanding the nature of the soul. Such enduring scientific paradigms are being expounded by theories such as Biocentrism. Robert Lanza posited the possibility of life after death and discusses the existence of the soul.  Also, two renowned quantum scientists, Dr. Stuart Hameroff and Sir Roger Penrose posited, through a quantum theory of consciousness process called O...

  Spiritual Concordance Though people can pray in any language, when Muslims perform their daily obligatory prayer – the Salat, it is observed in the language the Quran was originally revealed. The wisdom behind this is for the attainment of concordance. For instance, it would be chaotic if different people with various languages and dialects gathered to worship – perform Salat. However, by adopting a uniform mode, people of various languages across the world, who may not have been able to communicate with one another, can worship together concertedly. Hypothetically, without understanding the respective languages of one another, an Australian, Bosnian, Cape Verdean, Danish, English, Fijian, Gambian, Honduran, Italian, Jamaican, Korean, Liberian, Malaysian, Norwegian, Omani, Pakistani, Qatari, Russian, Samoan, Tahitian, Ugandan, Vietnamese and Yemeni, can congregate for Salat (worship)in unison. Additionally, the spread of the Arabic language is a spiritual by-product. The Arabic ...

  Timelessism Theory Beyond the arguments about time and the illusion of time, including positions on presentism and eternalism, I posit timelessism. Timelessism is the study of time as a creation. From a cosmological perspective, time emanated from the absence of time; meaning there must have been a period of existentiality that time did not exist. Time is primarily beneficial to the creation confined within creation – man within a spatial environment. Time is a continuous process that measures existence in the past, present and future. Universal time is calculated based on planet Earth's rotation in relation to distant celestial bodies crossing the meridian – a great circle on the surface of the earth passing through the poles (North and South). Historically, time has been measured in units of seconds, minutes, hours, days, years, decades, centuries, millennia, and in certain cases, eras, epochs and aeons. Without the measurement of time, then time cannot be calculated and withou...

  All Deities Mythical and Autochthonal Deity comes from the Latin word for God – Deus, then in French it is Deité, and in English it is "Deity". Deification is to deify – treat something or someone god-like. Deify can be appreciated as a cognate of deity. From an etymological perspective, Augustine of Hippo derived the term deity from “divine nature” – which is translated as Deitas in Latin. Deity is often associated with the supernatural or the divine and the identifiers can be pluralized or genderized as gods or goddesses – which are common terms in polytheism.   From history to date, all deities, regardless of their geographical situation, emanation or manifestation, are either mythological or autochthonous. There are many examples of autochthonous deities named after aspects of nature, natural phenomenon, cosmology and astronomy. For instance, sun and moon deities are revered across various cultural traditions and were at times given indigenous names or titles associ...

Culture versus Conviction Conviction is paramount in the acceptance of Islam. Therefore, those who assume Islam is an “Arab religion” are usually disappointed when they mix amongst Arabs in their communities or live in Arab countries, and discover their practices are not particularly Islamic. Furthermore, this misassumption extends to South-East Asia and other communities that often usually portray their societies as “Islamic”. I have long learnt the stark difference between theory and fiction, and I daresay that cultural orientation is not the ideal way to Islam.  As a similitude, imagine someone happens to learn of the existence of the Yoruba Religion – an autochthonous religion of the Yoruba people of modern-day West Africa. Following the discovery, the person embarks on a journey to Yorubaland in modern-day Nigeria and decides to mingle with the indigenous people to better understand the Yoruba religion. In such a hypothetical scenario, the tourist may be expectant of a fulfill...