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Tag: nobel laureate

  • Nobel laureate Morrison dies at 88

    Toni Morrison, the Nobel Prize-winning author of Beloved and a seminal voice in African American literature, has died at the age of 88.

    Paul Bogaards, Morrison’s publicist, confirmed the information by telephone, saying the author died on Monday night.

    Morrison received a series of honours during her lifetime, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

    Born in Ohio during the great depression, Morrison was an academic and an editor before she wrote her first novel in 1970.

    Beloved published in 1987, became her best known work, telling the story of a former U.S. slave after the Civil War that was based on real events.

    It was eventually turned into a film with Oprah Winfrey.

    “Toni Morrison’s prose brings us that kind of moral and emotional intensity that few writers ever attempt,” then-president Barack Obama said as he awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

  • Why we endorsed Moghalu, by Soyinka

    The Citizen Forum 2019, led by Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has explained why it endorsed the presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Kingsley Moghalu, for Saturday’s election.

    It said the former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has the knowledge and skill to govern Nigeria.

    The forum, in a statement to The Nation signed by Soyinka, said Moghalu was chosen by the forum after months of consultations and interactions with Nigerians, especially opposition contenders for the presidency.

    The endorsement came days after Soyinka said neither President Muhammadu Buhari nor former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, would get his vote.

    The statement added: “Over the past few months, we studied the careers, experiences and track records of most of the presidential aspirants, and most intensely those actually short-listed by the opposition parties themselves.

    “Like millions of Nigerians, we watched the debates. I physically interacted with some of the acknowledged top contenders, in some cases several times. We participated in HANDSHAKE ACROSS NIGERIA, where some candidates presented their briefs. Among others, I delivered a keynote address. We watched television interviews. We have exchanged notes with highly respected international Civil Servants.

    “The drive towards Consensus among these dedicated groups sometimes took the form of test questionnaires to the aspirants, including items such as: ‘Who among the contestants would you choose, if you did not emerge as the ultimate preference?’

    “There was nothing complicated about assessment parameters: mental preparedness, analytical aptitude, response to the nation’s security challenges, economic grounding, grasp of socio-political actualities, including a remedial concern with the Nigerian image in foreign perception etc. etc. not forgetting a convincing commitment to governance and resource decentralization – commonly referred to as Restructuring. “

    It rejected the idea that the electorate had only two realistic choices at polls.

    “Let me reiterate: there is over-abundant, but stifled leadership material, and there can be no excuse, now that that potential of high quality is being manifested, for constricting the political space in a population that is nudging two hundred million.

    “And that statement is of course specially addressed to those who took part in this exercise, those who deliberated opted out of it, some of whom were assessed anyway. Such potential compelled us to exercise utmost rigour in what proved to be a most daunting exercise. The final determination however is – the flag-bearer of the Young Progressive Party – KINGSLEY MOGHALU.”

    “I shall conclude with a somewhat interesting aside. I met Moghalu again on Monday morning, February 4th, and informed him of the Forum’s decision. During our discussion, I happened to ask him – what is the meaning of Moghalu. I was curious, because it had taken quite some time along the way for me to know to which ethnic group the name belonged. He replied, it means – “Evil Spirit, Leave me Be!” Then I asked him for his other names and he spelt them out:  “Actually my full names are Kingsley Chiedu Ayodele Moghalu”. Eyebrows raised, I asked, How come, Ayodele?  A piquant revelation resulted: “Oh, that came from Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. She was friends with my father. Mrs. Kuti was my godmother, and she gave me the name Ayodele”.

    “I was learning this for the first time. Moghalu’s CV is however in the public domain – his publications, record, and vision. The above is just a side-note that contains its own mild, thought provoking instruction, for those who care to examine the distractions of ethnic equivocations, and the rigid mind-sets and stereotypes imposed on products of circumstance.

    “That immediate task being now completed, Citizen Forum will now join forces with those who pray, “Evil Spirit, leave us be!” – at least those who subscribe to the belief that political elections are not a Do-or-Die Affair!”

  • State police: Soyinka backs call

    State police: Soyinka backs call

    • •‘Second term call hasty’

    Nobel Laureate Prof Wole Soyinka has added his voice to the on-going agitations for restructuring of the country, saying that Nigeria is over-centralised.

    The eminent writer also gave his backing to the clamour for the decetralisation of the police.

    “My own position is that people shouldn’t allow themselves be put up by those who try to cheat on the expression, ‘restructuring.’ It doesn’t matter by what name you call it. We all know that this nation was deconstructed and what we live in right now, as a nation, is not allowing structuring that expresses the true will of Nigerians,” he said.

    Soyinka spoke yesterday in Lagos, when he announced the 10 Nigerian writers, who would be leaving for Lebanon in a cultural exchange programme, The Sail Project, between The Wole Soyinka Foundation and Cedar Institute, University of Lebanon.

    According to him, every Nigerian knows what restructuring is all about, whether it is called reconfiguring, return to status quo, or reformulating the protocols of association.

    He however decried those who try to divert away attention from the main issue by mouthing platitudes like it is the mind that needs restructuring.  To him, this is a constant process, both as individual exercise as well as even the theological exercise. “People go to churches and mosques for their minds to be restructured. Restructuring the mind is not the issue; nobody is saying restructuring the mind should not be undertaken; anybody who is involved in examination already engages in mental and or attitudinal reconstruction.

    “So people should not try to substitute one for another. I find it very dishonest and cheap, trivialising the issue when people said it is the mind, which needs to be restructured. Who is denying that? So, why bring it up? We’re talking about the protocol of the association of the constitutive part of the nation. We’re talking about decentralisation, that is, another word. This country is over-centralised and that has been the bugbear of development, even of issues like security.

    “Even if it is one state, that state has the right to say, listen people, let us restructure this state; the protocols that went into the making of this state are no longer viable or have been distorted along the way or have been abandoned and we want to go back to the original set of protocols that created what we call his national entity. You can say you want to reinvent the wheels completely or you want to go back to the original protocols of association,” he added.

    He noted that an average citizen felt less secure than a few years ago, yet ‘when people talk about state police, there are reasons for it. When they talk about bringing policing right down to the community level, they know what they are talking about; this is also part of restructuring or reconfiguration of the articles of association.’

    When asked to comment on the clamour for a second term in office for Buhari by his aides and supporters, Soyinka said he was shocked by the move just midway into the president’s administration.

    “Why are we talking about second term, for heaven’s sake? I don’t understand this; we have hardly gone half-way or barely gone half-way and people are already talking about positions. I refuse to be part of that discussion and absolutely refuse to be part of that discussion.”

     

  • Nigeria is over-centralised – Soyinka

    Nigeria is over-centralised – Soyinka

    Nobel Laureate Prof Wole Soyinka has added his voice to the on-going agitations for restructuring of the country, saying that Nigeria is over-centralised.

    Soyinka spoke on Monday in Lagos when he announced the 10 Nigerian writers, who would be leaving for Lebanon in a cultural exchange programme, The Sail Project, between The Wole Soyinka Foundation and Cedar Institute, University of Lebanon.

    He noted that the present structure of the country  does not allow structuring that expresses the true will of Nigerians.

    “My own position is that people shouldn’t allow themselves be put up by those who try to cheat on the expression, ‘restructuring.’

    “It doesn’t matter by what name you call it. We all know that this nation was deconstructed and what we live in right now, as a nation, is not allowing structuring that expresses the true will of Nigerians,” he said.

    According to him, every Nigerian knows what restructuring is all about whether it is called reconfiguring, return to status quo, or reformulating the protocols of association.

    He however decried those who try to divert away the attention from the main issue by mouthing platitudes like it is the mind that needs restructuring. To him, this is a constant process, both as individual exercise as well as even the theological exercise.

    “People go to churches and mosques for their minds to be restructured. Restructuring the mind is not the issue; nobody is saying restructuring the mind should not be undertaken; anybody who is involved in examination already engages in mental and or attitudinal reconstruction.

    “So people should not try to substitute one for another. I find it very dishonest and cheap, trivializing the issue when people said it is the mind, which needs to be restructured. Who is denying that? So, why bring it up? We’re talking about the protocol of the association of the constitutive part of the nation. We’re talking about decentralization, that is, another word. This country is over-centralised and that has been the bugbear of development, even of issues like security.

    “Even if it is one state, that state has the right to say, listen people, let us restructure this state; the protocols that went into the making of this state are no longer viable or have been distorted along the way or have been abandoned and we want to go back to the original set of protocols that created what we call his national entity. You can say you want to reinvent the wheels completely or you want to go back to the original protocols of association,” he added.

    He noted that average citizen feels less secure than a few years ago yet ‘when people talk about state police, there are reasons for it. When they talk about bringing policing right down to the community level, they know what they are talking about; this is also part of restructuring or reconfiguration of the articles of association.’

  • Universal cure for HIV, cancer underway, says Nobel laureate

    Efforts are ongoing to develop a universal cure for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and cancer through collaboration, a Nobel laureate, Prof. Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, has said.

    Prof. Barre-Sinoussi, a co-discoverer of the HIV, said this in Paris while conducting reporters on a tour of the sophisticated laboratories at Institut Pasteur.

    The Nobel laureate and Luc Montagnier co-discovered the HIV in 1983.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted her as saying the HIV Cure and Cancer Forum would on Saturday be inaugurated at the Institut Curie in Paris.

    “Efforts are now underway to determine if these cancer therapies can be used to build up the immune system of patients with HIV.

    “This will be in such a way that HIV patients can achieve a durable and perhaps life-long treatment–free state of remission,’’ she said.

    The former IAS President said many of the key immune pathways now being therapeutically manipulated to cure cancer were first discovered in studies of chronic viral infections, particularly HIV.

    “We know that controlling HIV in the absence of therapy will require the generation and maintenance of powerful CD8+ or Killer-T cells that can target vulnerable parts of the virus.

    “The challenge is remarkably similar to that in oncology where the goal of innovative therapies is to generate Killer T cells that recognises and clear cancer cells.

    “Timothy Brown is the only person cured of HIV, and this was due to the work of a highly resourceful team of Oncologists.

    “His case illustrates that we need to do more to incentivise scientists to work across diseases and to ensure that research funding allows these synergies,’’  she said.

    The Emeritus Director of Research at Inserm expressed optimism that synergy would continue to strengthen the sciences and research.

    IAS President Prof. Linda-Gail Bekker said continued support for research was essential.

    She said the gathering in Paris would be used to inform the global community that research cuts would reverse the progress made against HIV and put more lives at risk.

    Among those who led the IAS team round the laboratories were Prof. Olivier Schwartz, Head of Virus and Immunity Unit and Dr. Asier Saez-Cirion, the Team Leader, HIV and Inflammation Unit.

    Also on the IAS team were Prof. Jean-Francois Delfraissy, Dr. Jean-Francois Chambon and Prof. Francois Dabis.

  • ‘Universal cure for HIV, cancer underway’

    ‘Universal cure for HIV, cancer underway’

    A Nobel Laureate, Prof. Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, says efforts are ongoing to develop a universal cure for HIV and cancer through collaboration.

    Barre-Sinoussi, a co-discoverer of the HIV,  said this in Paris while conducting some select journalists on a  tour of the sophisticated laboratories at Institut Pasteur.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier co-discovered the HIV in 1983.

    She also stated that the HIV Cure and Cancer Forum would on Saturday be inaugurated at the Institut Curie in Paris.

    “Efforts are now underway to determine if these cancer therapies can be used to build up the immune system of patients with HIV.

    “This will be in such a way that HIV patients can achieve a durable and perhaps life-long treatment–free state of remission,’’ she said.

    The former IAS President said that many of the key immune pathways now being therapeutically manipulated to cure cancer were first discovered in studies of chronic viral infections, particularly HIV.

    “We know that controlling HIV in the absence of therapy will require the generation and maintenance of powerful CD8+ or Killer-T cells that can target vulnerable parts of the virus.

    “The challenge is remarkably similar to that in oncology where the goal of innovative therapies is to generate Killer T cells that recognise and clear cancer cells.

    “Timothy Brown is the only person cured of HIV, and this was due to the work of a highly resourceful team of  Oncologists.

    “His case illustrates that we need to do more to incentivise scientists to work across diseases and to ensure that research funding allows these synergies,’’  she said.

    The Emeritus Director of Research at Inserm expressed optimism that synergy would continue to strengthen the sciences and research.

    IAS President,  Prof. Linda-Gail Bekker, on her part, said that continued support for research was essential.

    She said the gathering in  Paris would be used to inform the global community that research cuts would reverse the progress made against HIV and put more lives at risk.

    NAN reports that among those who led the IAS team round the laboratories were Prof. Olivier Schwartz, Head of Virus and Immunity Unit and Dr Asier Saez-Cirion, the Team Leader, HIV and Inflammation Unit.

    Also on the IAS team were Prof. Jean-Francois Delfraissy,  Dr Jean-Francois Chambon and Prof. Francois Dabis.

  • Gowon, Soyinka to inaugurate projects in Bayelsa

    Gowon, Soyinka to inaugurate projects in Bayelsa

    A former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon and Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, are expected in Bayelsa State to inaugurate key projects executed by the state Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson.

    A statement signed by Dickson’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said the two dignitaries were scheduled to commission some of the boarding schools built by the governor.

    The statement said already Dickson led a special team of his aides to conduct final inspection on the projects lined up for inauguration.

    Dickson was quoted to have expressed satisfaction with the progress made so far at the Ijaw National Academy.

    Dickson, who visited the Academy at Kaiama in Kolokuma/Opokuma LGA, described the school as a flagship centre of learning to nurture future leaders of the state and the Ijaw nation.

    “It will be a failure on the part of the government to pay lip service to education, as the children will be taking over the mantle of leadership from the present generation of leaders about 30 years from now”, he said.

    He said as part of the planned three-day visit of some notable personalities to the state, Prof. Soyinka and others would interact with the students to inspire and impart in them leadership skills.

    The governor, who also visited St. Jude’s Model Girls Secondary School, Amarata, donated of N1million to the Basketball Team of the school and promised to provide more sporting facilities.

    In their separate remarks, the Principal of Ijaw National Academy, Mr. Charles Hugh and his St. Jude’s counterpart, Mrs. Celia Apreala, commended the state Governor for his passion in revamping the educational system in the state.

    Hugh urged the students to reciprocate the gesture by studying hard and charged them to be of good conduct at all times.

    Speaking on behalf of the students, Master Justice Benstowe, a Library Prefect of the Ijaw National Academy, thanked the government for its show of concern about the affairs of the school.

    In the governor’s team were his Deputy, Rear Admiral John Jonah (Rtd), Secretary to State Government, Chief Serena Dokubo-Spiff, Commissioner for Education, Elder Markson Fefegha and his Information counterpart, Mr. Jonathan Obuebite among others.

    …

     

  • Soyinka laments invasion of his residence by herdsmen 

    Soyinka laments invasion of his residence by herdsmen 

    Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has  lamented the invasion of his residence in the forest of Jegba  Republic, off Kemta Housing Estate, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital by Fulani herdsmen and violated the serenity of the area.

    Soyinka described the invasion of the herdsmen as frequent and threatening.

    The Playwright, who was reported to have  made this known in passing  during a press conference at the Freedom Parks,  Lagos, urged relevant authority to address the menace of herdsmen in the country.

    The Nation gathered that the herdsmen who have been bringing their herds to his residence in Abeokuta to graze,  invaded it last April 15 with the herds of cattle almost grazing as far as his  lawns before they were chased out by Soyinka’s domestic staff.

    One of the domestic staff who spoke with The Nation in anonymity, said it was the Professor that first observed it recently that herdsmen were coming to his compound when he noticed the foot marks of the herds on the shore side of the shallow stream that coursed through the compound ringed round by a forest of trees and shrubs.

    “Baba was the one who first noticed that herdsmen were coming to this place to graze. He saw their foot prints and alerted us to.

    “So, on April 15 the herdsmen came again with their cattle and the animals had moved very close to the building when we saw them and we quickly chased them away,” he said.

    However, the Police Public Relations Officer in Ogun State, Abimbola Oyeyemi, told journalists that he had contacted the Kemta Divisional Police Headquarters, and the matter has not been reported there by anybody.

     

  • African drums festival symbol of unity, say Amosun, Soyinka, others

    African drums festival symbol of unity, say Amosun, Soyinka, others

    Eminent Nigerians including the Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Governor Ibikunle Amosun, Minister for Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed and traditional rulers have hailed the on – going African Drums Festival in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, as one that would “foster greater unity and Cooper action among Nigerians and African nations.”

    The festival featured an  array of performing troupes from five countries and over 15 States of Nigeria including the Konkere beats troupe run by a  University of Lagos lecturer, Dr. Tunji Sotimirin, with all showcasing their unique drums and dances to thrill of enthusiastic crowd of  dignitaries, tourists and participants.

    Amosun who declared it opened with the beating of the acclaimed 18 feet tallest drum in the world, said the event which began as Nigerian Drums festival last year, was upgraded to African Drums Festival because of the national and continental support the maiden edition received.

    The Governor said the festival was an avenue to showcase the rich cultural heritage of the Gateway State and project it to a global reckoning.

    “The need to sustain the legacy of the maiden edition and provide platform for participation of the states in Nigeria, African countries and the world made this administration to further expand the scope and call it African Drums Festival 2017.

    “We therefore, believe that this event will among other things, project the uniqueness of African culture in a more positive light; open up new vistas for African cultural artifacts as viable tool for social-economic development as well as broaden the knowledge of all and sundry to the varied drums and dances that are peculiar to multi-ethnic groups in Africa.

    “It is expected that this platform will also re-energise the cultural zeal in the minds of our people and the resultant cultural resurgence will in the long run, help us to appreciate our African culture more than before and forge ahead culturally on a united front,” Amosun said.

    In his remarks, Soyinka who noted that Ogun State is always first in pioneering best and great things in Nigeria, said it should not be a surprise that a festival to that has a unifying force for all tribes and Africans was initiated in Ogun.

    He recalled that the Afro beat music originated by the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti started in Ogun State before he spread to Lagos and the rest of the world.

    Also,  the Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who was represented  by the Director, National Troupe, Mr. Tar Ukoh, said the festival has great potential to unite Nigerians as well as promote pan-African unity and increased inter – African economic trade.

    Mohammed urged other states to walk the path of Ogun state in its bid to use arts and culture to reinvigorate the tourism potentials of the state for socio – economic development and investment.

    The Minister reiterated President Muhammadu Buhari’s determination to diversify the nation’s economy from  oil to  non-oil sectors like agriculture, solid minerals and tourism.

    In their separate goodwill messages, the royal fathers – the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo and the Olu of Ilaro, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle, all pushed  for the promotion of African cultural values and norms by governments.

    The Alake, Oba Gbadebo  urged governors of other states  to identify other aspects of Nigerian culture  and propagate them.

    He said the era where states have depend free oil money from Abuja is gone for good and charged governors to develop the tourism potentials of their respective states and turn them in foreign currency earners.

    In his message, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi  highlighted the place of drums Yoruba ethnic nationality, saying drums are used as a veritable tools to remind obas to responsible and accountable to the affairs of their domains.

    “Drums are important tools that accompany monarchs and warriors to the war-front and act as source from which they draw encouragement and courage as well as indicate to them when to withdraw or advance into battle.

    “Drums are also used to announce the deaths of some important personalities in Yoruba land.” Alaafin said.

    In an interview with The Nation, Sotimirin, said the festival is an opportunity to reinforce the place drums in the traditional lives of the people.

    He cited gbedu and bata drums as having significant place in the traditional setting of the people.

    “The gbedu drums are used in palaces to herald an Oba. Once you hear the sound, no matter where you are, you know it is for royalty. With other countries like Haiti, Congo, Burkina Faso and others participating, it shows that the importance of drums have gone global. Therefore, it is time to intensify the celebration for both social and economic gains,” he said.

     

  • Buhari, Soyinka meet in Aso Rock

    Buhari, Soyinka meet in Aso Rock

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday met behind closed doors with the Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    Soyinka, who was accompanied by Yemi Ogunbiyi, spent about one hour at the State House.

    He declined to speak in details on the purpose of his visit to the President.

    He dismissed the newsmen that laid ambush for him as he made his way out of the President’s office with the explanation that he discussed general and international issues with the President.

    But he promised to address a press conference later.