Prof. ‘Dayo Akeredolu-Ale, a retired Research Professor of Social Policy and Professor of Sociology, was educated at Ibadan Grammar School (Ibadan, Nigeria), the University of Ibadan, and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He held the Ph.D. degree from the University of London, which he obtained as an External Candidate. Prof. ‘Dayo had been, at various times, a high school teacher, a university teacher, and a research scholar and administrator, with his exposure and experience spanning both national and international levels.

Notably, as Prof. ‘Dayo Akeredolu-Ale, he served as a member of Nigeria’s Delegation to international meetings, also leading two such delegations. He was the Chairman of the Social Science Sector of the Nigerian National Commission for UNESCO and the Social Science expert on Nigeria’s delegation to all UNESCO General Conferences from 1976 to 1991. He also served as Chairman of the National Commission for UNESCO from 1986 to 1992. His most recent national assignment was as the Vice-Chairman of the National Working Committee on Social Security, a body that met from April 16 to August 27, 2009, and had one of Nigeria’s former Heads of State, General Dr. Yakubu Gowon, as its Chairman.

A visiting scholar twice at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, United Kingdom (1970-71 and 1976-77), and once at the University of Bergen, Norway (1996), Prof. ‘Dayo traveled widely, having visited most parts of Nigeria (traveling by road), practically all West African countries, many other countries in Africa and Europe, and the United States of America. His international exposure also included serving as a consultant to many United Nations agencies (UNESCO, UNCTAD, ECA, UNICEF, and UNDP) and as the Leader of the Mission in two major assignments. Prof. ‘Dayo Akeredolu-Ale, who published widely—books as well as articles in academic journals and national newspapers—founded both the Centre for Social Policy (CSP) and the Goodworks Interfaith Movement (GIM) Worldwide, and was the Executive Director of the Centre and the Grand Sensei of the Movement.

As for his religious persuasion, Prof. ‘Dayo Akeredolu-Ale was, to many people, an enigma. He was born into a Christian family, in the African Church Organization tradition. His parents and grandparents had all been Muslims before they were converted to Christianity. Many of his close relations remained Muslims. Even though his parents, especially his mother, took the Church seriously and saw him and his siblings baptized in the African Church, he never developed any strong attachment to the Church. Even from an early age, he believed the Church devoted too much time to ceremonies and rituals, wasted the time of the congregation, and was highly prone to intrigues and animosities among its leadership and members. In later years, even though he believed firmly in God, the Creator, the Supreme Spiritual Being whom the Jews, the Christians, and the Muslims say they worship, he was neither a Christian nor a Muslim, in the conventional sense. Nor was he a Buddhist, since he believed in God, even though he subscribed fully to Buddhism’s philosophical tenets, its strong emphasis on the curbing of worldliness, and the ethical principles enunciated in the Eightfold Path. According to Prof. ‘Dayo Akeredolu-Ale, spiritual resolution could result only from a valid and firm grasp of what constitutes the soul of religion, the essential religion, the fundamental spiritual and ethical truths which, to a very great extent, define humanity’s Chain of Grace and link humankind to salvation—eternal truths which are not the monopoly of any one religion but are inherent in the shared wisdom of all religions, indeed, in spirituality itself.