Shyllon’s experience with ‘Just Before Dawn’
My Most Memorable Book... Sharing Experiences
Engineer Yemisi Shyllon is a foremost art collector who also by passion, trained and practiced as a Lawyer. His professional careers made him to read quite wide over the years. But as an enthusiast of the arts, Shyllon continues to read very wide collection of books much as he collects choice works of art.
Engineer Shyllon’s love for art led him to establish the Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF), which is primarily concerned with academic and practice activities for the development of arts and artists. Keeping
a beautiful garden of art works and plants also tells a lot about Shyllon’s fancy for nature. It will not be inappropriate to describe him as an advocate for environmental care since he has been sharing his vision of a green earth with students and tourists from across different places of the world. He shares memories of a book he has read, ‘just before dawn’. It is a book he considers very important for reasons that it addressed principal issues in the Nigerian
society that require sensitivity for change to a better human society.
Engineer Shyllon’s love for art led him to establish the Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF), which is primarily concerned with academic and practice activities for the development of arts and artists. Keeping
a beautiful garden of art works and plants also tells a lot about Shyllon’s fancy for nature. It will not be inappropriate to describe him as an advocate for environmental care since he has been sharing his vision of a green earth with students and tourists from across different places of the world. He shares memories of a book he has read, ‘just before dawn’. It is a book he considers very important for reasons that it addressed principal issues in the Nigerian
society that require sensitivity for change to a better human society.
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| A section of Eng. Shyllon’s garden with works of art |
Memories of Kole Omotoso’s Just before dawn come alive for me every time I look at the Nigerian society. The book just resonates with the things that happen around us as a people.
Though it has some characteristics of fiction, it is one book that has presented facts about so many activities that
have shaped present day Nigeria, coming from the recent past.
have shaped present day Nigeria, coming from the recent past.
My appreciation of the book lies in the fact that in subtle narrative it takes you back to remember a phase in the life
of the nation when chaos presented itself raw on the streets. They came in form of protests and riots, a weapon
people used to address challenges of society.
of the nation when chaos presented itself raw on the streets. They came in form of protests and riots, a weapon
people used to address challenges of society.
Importantly however, the book tasks Nigerians to look at the present situation and see if there has been any significant change, or if the same challenges have rather taken new shapes, while national development remains threatened.
Reading Just before dawn simply means everyone who thinks change for good is what we need as a nation must dedicate themselves to the responsibility of moving for change and accepting one if and when it is proposed.
The book will serve as good reference for students of contemporary history, based on its wealth of information about
events of the recent past that have portrayed the truth concerning what Nigerians faced then, and are still facing
up till date.
events of the recent past that have portrayed the truth concerning what Nigerians faced then, and are still facing
up till date.
