By Hassan Auwalu Muhammad
The Chairman and CEO of the Daily Trust Newspaper, Alhaji Kabiru Abdullahi Yusuf has organized a special Iftar (breaking of the fast) reception for the immediate past Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOuN).
The iftar dinner was held at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja on Tuesday May 4, 2021. At the dinner reception were two other close friends of both Prof. Abdalla and Alhaji Kabiru: Dr. Abdulrazzaq Ahmad Muhammad-Oumar and Dr. Aminu Mamman Ibrahim.
The four of them were in the same stream as students at the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria in Kaduna State in the mid-1970s. Also joining them was Alhaji Mannir Dan-Ali, former Chief Executive Officer of Media Trust Limited, publishers of the Daily Trust newspaper and a friend of the group.
During the dinner, the old friends reminisced about their undergraduate days in Ahmadu Bello University and the discussion circle that brought them together in the first place.
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As young undergraduates, they found pleasure in holding intensive debates about metaphysics and epistemology, astronomy, philosophy of science, radical political ideologies, poetry and generally disruptive social discourse.
During Prof. Abdalla’s tenure at NOUN in Abuja, they had held regular dinner meetings, reinforcing their mutual respect and appreciation for each other.
The Iftar dinner was to bid Prof. Abdalla farewell from Abuja as he takes up Sabbatical appointment at Kaduna State University’s Department of Mass Communication, before finally returning back to his base at Bayero University Kano.
Prof. Abdalla thanked the group for their friendship and said he will miss the group for ‘the past, the present and the future of intellectual discourse and reliving the glorious ABU days’, for supporting him during his tenure as Vice-Chancellor of NOUN, and also making the day special for him.
