On July 14, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Prof. John Pepper Clark, Dr. Gabriel Okara, Dr. Odia Ofeimun and one of Nigeria’s finest historians, Prof. Joe Alagoa, interacted with over 1,000 students of the Ijaw National Academy, a special school run by the Bayelsa State government.
The British-born Principal of the school, Mr. Charles Johnson, was very well the session was holding.
Johnson said: “Very often, we can learn an enormous amount from great men. And we are going to hear from lots of great men today.
“I think there is a real difference between the idea of being clever and the idea of wisdom. The ability to be clever is something you have all got.
“You have all passed quite a hard and competitive examination to get here. You are some of the most able children of the Ijaw tribe. But the difference between being clever and being wise is the application of the cleverness.”
Governor Seriake Dickson reminded the pupils of the rare opportunity of having the sages in their midst.
He said: “Listen and learn from the wisdom of these great icons not just of our own country, but world leaders in their own right.
“These great men don’t pay too much attention to mundane things as you can see. You have seen them. They live simply, yet profoundly. Living lives of great impact.
“Today’s event is not for me. I am not one of these giants, but I intend to go back to school after my service and also aspire to be a professor because that was really what I wanted to be; to teach and write and contribute to the body of knowledge, but I am not yet qualified to join them.”
Dickson went on: “When we were your age, we read their works and got inspired. They are here to talk to you and expand your horizons. My charge to you is to ask you to soar as high as your dreams can take you.
“Many more presidents will be here, and you know in this great state, we also have a former president (Dr. Goodluck Jonathan). He too loves education, I know that. We have discussed it. At the appropriate time they will come and interact with you.”
The pupils did not waste the opportunity. They asked germane questions at the event tagged ‘A Day with the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka and Ijaw Literary Icons”.
A pupil asked Alagoa: “Do you have any specific time when you feel you should write?”
“I think every writer should develop a pattern of work,” he said, “For me, waking up very early in the morning before others wake up. That’s about the best time for me to write.
“As a historian, I do tell the stories of our people. But not in as engaging and clear and visible and affecting the different emotions of people like the literary people. There is a magic that they can bring to the story.”
Alagoa added: “This is because the historian has to rely on evidence, something that has come from the past, to interpret and tell the story of humanity; who we are and expecting to give us some wisdom.
“For example, our cultures are inextricably linked and joined and we find that we have relations with communities right across the River Niger up to Sokoto.
“From excavations that were done in Sokoto and in the Niger Delta, even to Lagos and beyond, I believe our lives, our fortunes, our destinies are all united. That’s a story that we historians can tell,” Alagoa said.
A JSS 2 pupil, Juliet Johnny, Stephen Praise and Ikede Majesty fired other questions.
Johnny asked Soyinka: “Sir, what does it take to be a Nobel Laureate and how many books do I have to write to have the award?”
Soyinka said: “I can assure you that it is not the quantity. It’s the quality and very often the relevance and finally the literary taste of that particular work. Because literature is very subjective and very often a lot that happens depends on the taste of any jury deciding on the work.
“So, yes, it might be the quality, it is also the relevance, but ultimately, whether we like it or not, it is the taste of the jury which is deciding on the work of art.”
Miss Praise’s concern was also for Soyinka: “As a writer, what comes first, the title, story line or just a word?
The professor responded: “It’s a very difficult question. It’s a very difficult question. Sometimes an idea sticks in the mind and it continues to gestate and you may even think you have forgotten about it, but it’s actually operating in the subconscious.
“You go out and do other things, but one day you get the structure through which to narrate the idea and the two things come together. But the idea is (always) there. It may be at home or something you read in the newspaper.”
Ikede Majesty, one of the senior perfects in the school, asked what has changed since Soyinka won the global award.
“The answer is very straightforward,” he said. “Yes, and in a negative way. Very often I cannot do the things I really want to do because I have lost what is one of the greatest gifts, and that is anonymity.
“It means one’s constituency has been enlarged. Your priorities change not because you want to, but because of the pressure,” he added.
He went on: “Let me summarise by quoting Bernard Shaw when he was awarded the Nobel Prize very late in life: ‘It takes a devilish mind to invent such a destructive thing as dynamite , but it must have been a diabolical thing from hell who invented the Nobel Prize, and I agree with him sometimes , not all the time’, he added.
On how he felt winning the award, he said: “It’s a very long and interesting story, though we don’t have much time. But let me say that it was totally unexpected and I couldn’t believe that it was happening and when I came back home was really when it began to sink in.
“I was met at the airport by my colleagues, including JP Clark. And everybody got excited and that was when it began to sink, but then there was still something woozy about it at the time.”
