The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Soyinka

  • Boko Haram carnage making Nigeria break-up less likely, says Soyinka

    Boko Haram carnage making Nigeria break-up less likely, says Soyinka

    Nigeria is suffering greater carnage at the hands of Islamist group Boko Haram than it did during a secessionist civil war, yet this has ironically made the country’s break-up less likely, Nigerian Nobel Literature Laureate Wole Soyinka said.

    Speaking to Reuters at his home surrounded by rainforest near the southwestern city of Abeokuta, Soyinka said the horrors inflicted by the militants had shown Nigerians across the mostly Muslim north and Christian south that sticking together might be the only way to avoid even greater sectarian slaughter.

    The bloodshed is now worse than during the 1967-70 Biafra war when a secessionist attempt by the eastern Igbo people nearly tore Nigeria up into ethnic regions, he added.

    “We have never been confronted with butchery on this scale, even during the civil war,” Soyinka said in his front room, surrounded by traditional wooden sculptures of Yoruba deities on Tuesday.

    “There were atrocities (during Biafra) but we never had such a near predictable level of carnage and this is what is horrifying,” said the writer, who was imprisoned for two years in solitary confinement by the military regime during the war on charges of aiding the Biafrans.

    Soyinka, a playwright and one of Africa’s leading intellectuals who still wears his distinctive white Afro hairstyle, turns 80 in two weeks. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, the first African writer to receive it.

    A million people died during the Biafra war, though mostly through starvation and illness, rather than violence.

    Boko Haram’s five-year-old struggle to carve out an Islamic state from its bases in the remote northeast has become increasingly bloody, with near daily attacks killing many thousands.

    The conflict’s growing intensity has led Nigerian commentators to predict it may split the country, 100 years after British colonial rulers cobbled Nigeria together from their northern and southern protectorates.

    “I think ironically it’s less likely now,” Soyinka said. “For the first time, a sense of belonging is predominating. It’s either we stick together now or we break up, and we know it would be not in a pleasant way.”

    Governments let in religion

     

    Boko Haram’s abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls in April drew unprecedented international attention to the insurgency and pledges of aid from Western powers, but violence has worsened.

    Boko Haram fighters frequently massacre whole villages, gunning down fleeing residents and burning their homes.

    Nigeria, amalgamated by the British in 1914, brought together often historically antagonistic peoples – principally the largely Muslim Fulani, Hausa and Kanuri of the North, and the Yoruba, Igbo and other peoples of the mostly Christian south.

    Several regional movements have launched low-level independence campaigns that get little national attention. But Soyinka said fewer people were shrugging off Boko Haram’s menace.

    “It’s almost unthinkable to say: ‘well, let’s leave them to their devices.’ Very few people are thinking that way.”

    Attacks spreading southwards, including three bombings in the capital since April, showed it was not a just a northern problem.

    “The (Boko Haram) forces that would like to see this nation break up are the very forces which will not be satisfied having their enclave,” he said. “(We) are confronted with an enemy that will never be satisfied with the space it has.”

    Soyinka blamed successive governments for allowing religious fanaticism to undermine Nigeria’s broadly secular constitution, starting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo allowing some states to declare Sharia law in the early 2000s.

    “When the spectre of Sharia first came up, for political reasons, this was allowed to hold, instead of the president defending the constitution,” he said.

    Soyinka sees both Christianity and Islam as foreign impositions.

    “We cannot ignore the negative impact which both have had on African society,” he told Reuters. “They are imperialist forces: intervening, arrogant. Modern Africa has been distorted.”

    He added that while the leadership of Boko Haram needed to be “decapitated completely”, little had been done to present an alternative ideological vision to their “deluded” followers, driven largely by economic destitution and despair.

  • Where Soyinka got the CNN interview wrong

    The bestiality and violent criminal activities of that dreaded Boko Haram group stands condemned by every believer in the sanctity of human life. The dastardly act of this group, in the last couple of years, remains a mystery, highly unquantifiable, in terms of souls and properties lost, the one that drew global attention being the cruel abduction of over 200 innocent girls from Chibok School, in Borno State.

    However, with the pronouncement credited to Nobel Laureate, our highly respected Prof Wole Soyinka, during his last interview on the CNN, there is therefore, the need to go to the basics and critically look at the issues that surrounded the emergence of this dreaded group to global prominence, for the purpose of learning one or two lessons from the phenomenon.

    The name, Boko Haram, before its political coloration, was a derogatory appellation given by the residents to that local Islamic Organization, headed by late Ustaz Mohammed Yusuf, whose worldview, preaching and ideology were radically and totally opposed to the existing Islamic doctrines of the known core Islamic religious organizations in his locality.

    The preaching of the then religious group, headed by late Yusuf, was considered anti-establishment because it centered on certain evils, that they (the group) generally associated with some products of western education, by way of human propensity for selfishness, whereby both the political patronage and economic resources meant for the majority are being cornered by the few northern educated, religious/political elite, to the detriment of the populace. Hence, their local agitation, then, for a full fledged implementation of Islamic practices, as entrenched in Sharia Laws, in order to be able to curb (in the group’s estimation) the injustice and evils associated with the acquisition of western education. Hence, the coinage of the term “Boko Haram” by the local populace to spite the group.

    Presidential aide, Doyin Okupe, in an interview with CNN which published on page 7 of The Nation of Wednesday, May 7, revealed that the Islamic organization, (Boko Haram), at the initial stage, was not involved in kidnappings or any form of violent acts. However, one can say the group became radicalized and militarized between 2002 and 2009, when the opposing local traditional, political and religious elite joined issues with the group, thereafter, occasionally made use of the local security agencies and institutions to abuse, harass and intimidate Yusuf and his members, from one town of the state to the other, coupled with the destruction of their mosques within the North-eastern zone. Members of late Mohammed Yusuf Islamic organization were often detained and clamped into prison or police cells, and without recourse to the rule of law, hence, the group early clashes, skirmishes and confrontational attitude with the local police stations and prison guards.

    The activities of the group came to national prominence, in 2009, when late President Umaru Yar’Adua, under the instigation and influence of the opposing local elite, sent down both the police and military troop to arrest late Mohammed Yusuf, at the end of which he was extra-judicially killed, on Thursday, July 30, 2009, by the police, with many of his organization members murdered in cold blood that spanned five days, between Sunday, July 26 – 30,2009, at their various camps in Bauchi, Yobe, Kano and Maiduguri, Borno State.

    The extra-judicial killing of Mohammed Yusuf, and cold blooded murder of his followers, drew the attention of international media like Al Jazeera. Late President Yar’Adua, as a result of the international media outcry, made a promise to bring to book those security personnel who were involved in the extra judicial killings, but did nothing to that effect, until his demise.

    Prof Wole Soyinka rightly pointed out, in his interview with the CNN, published in The Punch of May 8, that Boko Haram menace has graduated from local and national issue, to become an international monster, beyond the capacity and capability of the federal government. However, although, he denounced the extra judicial killing of late Mohammed Yusuf, but on the notion that the killings aggravated the crisis in the North-east, the Nobel Laureate was quoted on page 7, of The Nation, Wednesday, May 7, as saying “the late Yusuf was a serial killer and butcher, who should have been brought to justice were he to be alive.”

    The question, now is – was there any discreet and personal investigation conducted by the Nobel Laureate, (apart from the ones dished out to the media, by the state security agencies, in collaboration with the locals, who had issues to join with the late Mohammed Yusuf, then) to warrant Yusuf being categorically labeled a serial killer and butcher, before his murder in 2009?

    Was such investigation, if any, brought before judicial adjudication and pronouncement for legal backing and validity?

    Prof Soyinka went further during the CNN interview to say “When Yusuf was killed, a former Head of State went on a mission of appeasement to Boko Haram family, asking the people to forgive and forget. But this was a killer. But the law says those who kill must not go unpunished” – The Nation, Page 7, May 7. The question now arises, if Mohammed Yusuf was a killer, and the law says those who kill must not go unpunished, should the punishment be pronounced or meted out to the alleged killer without recourse to the said law, for proper lawful court adjudication?

    At what point, and how many months or years, after Yusuf and some of his followers’ gruesome murder, did the former head of state go to beg Boko Haram to forget and forgive?

    At the time of extra judicial killing of Yusuf Mohammed and his followers in 2009, was there any public condemnation and outcry for justice, most especially, from our activists and social justice crusaders, in the like of Prof. Soyinka?

    What has since then happened to the court case of those security agents arrested, for their involvement in the extra judicial killing of Yusuf and his followers since 2009?

    It really saddens one, how a mere local divergent opinion, ideas, and preaching on issue, among adherents of the same faith could snowball to a global menace, with its attendant human and material loss, in great magnitude, arising from the murderous activities of the so-called Boko Haram, as a result of both the leadership and followership’s act of omission or commission.

    Human history is replete with repetition, and our sense of judgment is often beclouded with emotion, sentiment and prejudices, based on mind-set, and our pre-determined assessment of individual and issue, depending on our line of divides – socio-economic, political and religious stand pole.

    Now that all hands are on deck, and foreign help is coming in, to rescue our abducted daughters, there is a fervent need for every living human being to be tolerant, uphold justice whenever it matters most, making truth his or her shield, and be conscious of the fact that act of censorship of facts, half truth, outright falsehood and cheap propaganda, against perceived enemies, often lead to uncontrollable but avoidable self-indulged crises in our private, public and national lives.

    As President Goodluck Jonathan postulated that Chibok abduction saga, will mark the beginning of the end of terror in Nigeria, so also the import of its lessons should, however, not be forgotten, for the prevention of future unnecessary upheaval and its unwarranted human and material sacrifices, out of ignorance and spiritual bankruptcy.

     

    • Oluwole writes from Iwo Rd., Ibadan

  • Boko Haram a menace to the world, says Soyinka

    Boko Haram a menace to the world, says Soyinka

    Nobel Prize winning author Prof Wole Soyinka spoke with CNN’s Christian Amanpour on the Chibok abduction. Here is the transcript courtesy amanpour.com.

    You heard that leader of Boko Haram say the most outrageous things by Allah, ‘I have the right to sell these girls into slavery. There’s a market for them. Western education must be — must be taken out of this country’. What do you make of what’s going on in your country right now?

    It’s a situation which has been left to fester. It was addressed very late and very casually, very lackadaisically. And now it’s become not just a national problem but a West African problem because it’s a force which destabilises the entire nation.

    Do you think it’s a good thing and should your president accept the offer of help that the United States is giving, military personnel, hostage negotiation experts, all sorts of advice and probably material on surveillance and other such things?

    President Jonathan should have asked for it from the very beginning. I don’t believe in false pride. The history of the movement which — to which Boko Haram belongs or which it is a part, a tendency, that quote-unquote, if you like, “philosophy,” is one which is a menace to the entire world, is not a Nigerian affair alone. So there should be no hesitation or approval of the language by the president.

    Why do you think they have hesitated? Look, it was you who called for the president to confront this and speak to the nation, address the nation. You did that last week. Only this weekend did he follow your advice and actually spoke to the nation. Why has he been, in your words, in denial?

    It’s not only he; it’s the advisers around him. It’s a certain section of the nation, some of whom enjoy, for various reasons, a nation in a state of chaos. They profit by it and if I thought them are guilty of provoking the situation. There’s a measure of guilt and also a measure of gloating that the government of the nation is in serious trouble. So it’s a mixture of motivations. The person who has no excuse is the president of the nation.

    I want to bring up some things that we’ve been watching. For instance, we’ve been watching these demonstrations by the — by the parents inside Nigeria, plus many, many concerned activists and citizens. We’ve seen these demonstrations now spread to Washington, London and elsewhere. But we’ve also heard from a father and some parents of these children, who were — who were abducted three weeks ago. I want to play you what one of the fathers told CNN by phone shortly after the kids were kidnapped. Well, do you know what, we don’t have that. But what he was saying was we know that had the government moved quicker, they could have rescued our girls. Why do you — what is going on? He says, you know, the government doesn’t care, quote, “about the poor people” of this country.

    You know, I probably have more questions than you have. For instance, I’d like to know why we are not allowed to see the faces, the humanity of these girls who have been abducted. Why is it that their pictures are not on the pages of the newspaper? Well, why isn’t it? Why aren’t they? I told you, I have more questions than you have.

    But is that a government restriction?

    It’s a government — it’s obviously a government — this is a government which is not only in denial mentally but is in denial about certain obvious steps to take. It’s almost like childlike situations that if you shut your eyes, if you don’t exhibit, you know, the tactile evidence of the missing humanity here, that somehow the problem will go away. It’s an attitude which exists in the subconscious, even though it’s not (inaudible).

    Let me play this poor father’s sad comments to CNN. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (from captions): ‘They have a “don’t care” attitude concerning the poor people in the nation. Had it been the government had taken any measure, I believe they would have to restore our daughters. They waited until after 11 days. They have to find them somewhere else. We parents, we don’t know where our daughters are now.’ You know, when you hear his voice — does it make you feel sad?

    It’s really agonising, really agonising. It’s something which I never thought, even though I’ve been warning for years, it’s not — you know, for years about this menace, when it eventually escalates to this level, it’s astonishing how one still feels, you know, literally eviscerated by the abduction of these girls.

    You are a Nobel laureate… Why is it that you’ve been warning? And what exactly have you been warning about that hasn’t been dealt with?

    I’ve been warning especially that the pinpricks of this movement are not confined to Nigeria. And that it should be recognised, those who understand the history of Algeria (ph), for instance, those who saw the career of the — of the Taliban when they overran Afghanistan, those who cannot delude themselves that people are going to Somalia to be trained with Al-Shabaab, et cetera, et cetera, those who are conscious, what is happening in the rest of the world? Should have done five years ago. And they have been warned publicly. I’ve said it in letters that the pinpricks you see all over the world are consolidating into a situation of internal war, insurrection by this group.

    What will that mean for Nigeria? You are, after all, the most powerful economy in Africa. But there’s terrible corruption.  What does all of this mean for Nigeria? Are you worried about it?

    Oh, very much so, very much so. And the — when we even talk about corruption, there’s a need to specify it so because this revolt, if you like, this insurrection or whatever began in a certain section of the country.

    And it indicates what has been happening to what eventually became the foot soldiers, the despairing imagery (ph), for instance, who’ve been under the thumb of the militant mullahs and who brainwashed thousands of these kids, who are food soldiers. They’re the ones who cannot think for themselves any longer. And those who’ve started this movement — this was started in fact — their soldiers are (inaudible). They’re out of control. The politicians who use that toxic brew of religion and politics to try and destabilise a nation, they are asking for help because those on the jury (ph) who’ve trained elsewhere, who become radicalised, even more than their handlers, understand that they are totally out of control. And they’re on the first line of the victims.

    You call for the government and the nation has called for the government to take action against Boko Haram…So on the one hand, you and others are calling on the government to get this in hand. On the other hand, a lot of backlash is being created by the way their scorched earth policy seems to be progressing.

    I’m calling not just for the nation to take action. I’m calling for the international community, the United Nations. This is a problem. This is a global problem. And a foothold, you know, is being very deeply entrenched in West Africa. If for instance, Nigeria with the assistance of France had not moved into Mali, and fortunately this is one of the pieces of advice which this government eventually took, but don’t wait for Mali to come to Nigeria; go into Mali and stop them where they are. And France took the lead, we followed immediately in Nigeria — and ECOWAS followed. So it’s not a Nigerian problem alone. Now when people talk about corruption —

    And that was, of course, when Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb —

    Boko Haram was going to Mali to train, to refresh, to reequip and if Mali had stayed in the hands of Al Qaeda, it’s a very different story. The other thing I want to say is this: it’s part of the denial when certain — when fingers are pointed at certain events in the country without going back to understand how this had — I’m talking about extrajudicial killing, for instance. It is wrong; it is condemnable and we condemned it. But to say that because a leader of the original Boko Haram was extrajudicially executed that that is why there is now this upsurge, this climactic action, this is part of the self-denial, of the denial of the real situation.

    This Yusuf (ph) was a killer, a butcher. He should never have been extrajudicially killed, I agree. But this event, this rebel started long before the extrajudicial killing. And a man that they’re trying to turn into a saint now, who’s just a homicidal maniac, who killed non-Muslims, you know, at the snap of a finger, killed families and forced people to convert or give them a choice, convert or you’ll be killed.

    Boko Haram — you just talked about the leader of Boko Haram — what did you make of the swaggering, glib, gleeful laughter of this leader when he just sort of appeared face uncovered to the world and said he was going to sell these girls? Just give me your impression psychologically of what he’s up to.

    Most bullies whether on a small scale or a national or international scale, they bluster, they do more of the same thing when they spy a community, a nation or a state, which is on its knees, which doesn’t confront them directly…Yes. If you remember, when the first — well, not the first, I mean, you know how far back one should go.

    Well, it’s been going on for a long, long time. The world suddenly got interested because this is 276 girls who were taken all at once.

    But before that, when the United Nations headquarters were blown up in the capital of a mission, you want to go further back? When the extreme Islamists literally sacked the capital, you know, under President (inaudible) because they claim that religion was offended because there was a beauty contest, going to go in on there, there have been numerous instances like this. And when Yusuf was still, remember, a former head of state —

    He’s the original —

    (Obasanjo) went on a mission of appeasement to Boko Haram family, asking virtually on his — on his knees, please forgive and forget. But these were killers. I mean, those who killed the leaders should have been punished, yes. But we shouldn’t go and appease killers.

    Now with these girls, the longer this goes on, the fact that it’s so public now, what do you think is going to happen to these girls? Are they all together, do you think? Have they been split up? Will they be sold? What do you think?

    I made a statement at the World Book Fair, at which I said confront the reality. It’s painful; it’s horrifying. I said these girls are going to be sold as sex slaves. I used that expression. I said let’s not beat around the bush. We’re dealing with a monstrosity. We’re dealing with an affliction the like of which the nation has never encountered. Understand that you must go in quickly. You must act rapidly because these girls are going to be traumatised in a way in which — which is going to blast the rest of their lives.

    And do you think it’s right, the reports we hear about the first lady of Nigeria, criticising activists who’ve been protesting in the streets and basically accusing them of bringing bad publicity and critcising her husband’s government?

    I made public statements about this woman who calls herself the first lady of Nigeria. I don’t want to say anything more about her.

    So ok. I won’t push you on that. There are many, many people who look at, for instance, neighboring Uganda, where we had Joseph Kony, the Lord’s Resistance Army. They also took girls for years. It was going on for years…

    I call attention to Joseph Kony…

    And by the way, Joseph Kony’s a Christian monster.

    And I’m very glad you mentioned, because I have mentioned Joseph Kony a number of times as a parallel to what is happening now so that it’s to tell these Muslim fundamentalists that they shouldn’t take pride in bestiality, that the Christian side also knows it. The issue’s not religion. It’s that fundamentalist fascism in which you feel that it’s an act of domination, an act of domination. You prove what are you have in the environment in the little pond, you know, where you’re operating. It’s the same mentality entirely.

     Has this abduction changed the Nigerian people? And what does that mean for the government, particularly for these upcoming elections?

    I think anyone at all with the — with the humane trait in his or her makeup has got to take this government to task on any level because there are many things which could have been done. And I’ve stressed this over and over again, abduction, terrorism, suicide bombing, these are very difficult situations to deal with. But they’re not unique. And it’s easy to anticipate, especially if you’re only a country and you have any sense of history, this is very easy to anticipate in what direction this will go. So those who are coming out in the streets now, they’ve always been conscious, to some extent. But didn’t realise how soon the enormity of the action will catch up on them.

    Now if you like, the worms are turning. Where it will end, I do not know. But one thing is certain: the president and his government cannot sleep easy after what has happened to Nigeria. It is not possible. Any either pretend or real indifference or denial has ended. I’m convinced about that.

    But also the situation is now beyond the capacity of the government. That’s why I say the situation must be internationalised.

  • Boko Haram has become a global problem, says Soyinka

    Boko Haram has become a global problem, says Soyinka

    Unless the international community joins forces with the Nigerian government, the 276 girls kidnapped at the Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State would be sold as sex slaves, Prof Wole Soyinka said yesterday.

    The Nobel Laureate, who spoke to CNN’s Christine Amanpour, described the abduction of the school girls as a horrifying event, which needed rapid action from the global community.

    He said the experience would traumatise the victims for the rest of their lives, stressing that services of psychological experts would be needed to help the girls recover from the pain should they be rescued alive.

    He said: “The world must confront this reality. It is painful and horrifying that these girls are going to be sold as sex slaves. I used that expression deliberately; let us not beat around the bush. We are dealing with the monstrosity and an affliction, which requires that we must go in quickly and act rapidly, because these girls are going to be traumatised in a way in which it is going to …haimt them for the rest of their lives.”

    Soyinka described as gleeful charade, the latest video released by the Boko Haram sect, which filmed its leader, Imam Abubakar Shekau, with four other armed militants, sending a message to the government.

    “The obscenity we just watched from the leader of Boko Haram is something to be anticipated, but it doesn’t come as a surprise. That is the nature of what this people have made themselves into,” the Nobel Laureate said.

    Soyinka, who noted that the Boko Haram activity should not be seen as Nigeria’s problem, said the sect was consolidating internal insurrection that had been brewing slowly in the country for a long time.

    He dismissed the notion that the extrajudicial killing of Mohammed Yusuf, the sect’s leader, aggravated the crisis in the Northeast, saying the late Yusuf was a serial killer and butcher, who should have been brought to justice were he to be alive. He condemned the move by government leaders to make the late sect leader a saint, even as he denounced his extra-judicial killing.

    He said: “When Yusuf was killed, a former Head of State went on a mission of appeasement to Boko Haram family, asking the people to forgive and forget. But this was a killer. But the law says those who kill must not go unpunished.”

    Condemning the acts of terror against innocent Nigerians, Soyinka said: “These criminals take pride in bestiality. The issue is that of fundamentalist fascism in which you feel that…it is an act of domination in which you prove what power you have in the environment, the little pond, where you operate. It is a bad mentality.”

    Soyinka said the protesters demonstrating against the school girls’ abduction have created action whose end nobody could tell. He said the abduction has ended all pretence by the government, which he said has shown indifference to the enormity of the crisis rocking the Northeast.

    He said: “People coming out on the street now don’t realise the enormity the action would catch up on them. Where it would end, I do not know but one thing is certain; the president and his government cannot pretend what has befallen Nigeria. All the pretence, indifference and denial have ended; I am convinced about that. The situation is now beyond the capacity of the government…”

     

    That is why I said it involves an international action.”

     

     

     

  • Peep into making of Soyinka’s Ake film

    Peep into making of Soyinka’s Ake film

    Four months to the celebration of Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka’s 80th birthday, the production crew of his Ake film has started rolling out previews.

    As the making of Ake plods on, the production crew has finally begun to give out portions of completed parts of the film in series of “sneak previews”. The previews are included as proportional foretastes so that the flavour of the whole film can be appreciated in advance.

    Filming had been concentrated on the HM’s home and household. Soyinka’s father was the headmaster of the Christian Mission School in Ake, Abeokuta at the period of the writer’s childhood, sometime between 1934 (when he was born) and 1945 when he was admitted into high school and the story wound to a close. Later Mr. S. A. Soyinka became schools’ supervisor in the entire Egba and Ijebu Districts.

    For production convenience, continuous work has been concentrated on the household in which Soyinka grew up, as narrated in the autobiography. The parents (Wild Christian the mother and Essay, the father) are at the heart of daily bustles of activities: the domestic life, the relationship with the school which shares the same expansive compound with the home.

    In the scenes featured in the preview, Wole gets into many troubles. First, is because he is fond of stealing hand-scoops of lactogen baby milk belonging to his younger sister Folashade. The wild Christian, who is increasingly concerned about Wole’s deliberate seclusion from the rest of the family and his indulgence in private “study” sets forth the plan  to bring Wole “back into the household” by depriving him of the privilege of hanging out alone in his father’s bedroom.

    “The family life which Soyinka writes about will be very familiar to a whole lot of us,” Dapo Adeniyi who heads the production says. “The pathway to the adult Soyinka is also very visible,” he declared.

    Ake in production has surmounted many challenges, principally because of the costs of actualising the movie.

    First of all, as Adeniyi commented, “we are not about to bring out yet another hotch-potch of a screen work and so the production values have to be high. But now that people can begin to see aspects of the work, it is about time we let them judge.

    “Moreover, we are bringing innovations that are not very usual in contemporary Nigerian movie productions. Because of the periodicity of the production, we delve into set extension and special effects in order to bring some gravitas into the work.

    “Wole travels to Ibadan to write the entrance examination into Government College, from Lafenwa Station, Abeokuta on a train. The coal train is no longer in existence. Actually, their remnants are in a “graveyard” within the compound of the Nigerian Railway Corporation in Lagos. So what do we do? We rebuilt the train using CGI. This has gulped a lot of time, beginning with test shootings, story-boarding and so on. All of those represent a very expensive route to making a film. Even so, many tall promises of support for the production at the outset have brought less than desired. Only a few made good their promise and they run far short of what was budgeted. The production company has had to raise facilities to the limit of its abilities. Because the work is still in progress, we have not given up optimism that more support is on the way,” he says.

    Asked to mention those who have so far supported the project, the producer says, it is much better to wait until the film is fully released when the permission of the supporters would have been obtained.

    A major film equipment leasing company has generously supported the production with most of the production hardware. The Nigerian Railway Corporation headquarters also gave permission to use all of its facilities from Lagos down to Jebba. And there are a handful of others who gave their support to the project.

    “The truth of the matter is that Ake is big and too important. It must get the best treatment no matter what. We have had to shoot and reshoot. Some scenes are still going to be reshot. Some due to audio problems. The environs in which the majority of the film is being shot seems quiet, but there can be eruptive noise especially from the praying muezzin and motorbikes hooting their horns. Of course they bear very heavily on the production.

    He continued: “The parsonage compound is a mixture of disparate environments located in Abeokuta, Ibadan and Lagos merged as one in film space. One of the delightsome aspects of the production is the children cast. We braced up for challenges here because we thought there could be problems of lack of adequate readiness but it turned out to be one of the strongest areas of the production. Some of the children were so familiar with their lines that they sometimes prompted some adults! Production camp time were very happy hours and they could not wait to resume work. Except for one minor case, I cant recall anyone falling ill.

    “There are three Woles with the gradation of time. Ake is as exciting as it is challenging to make into a film”

    Work on the film is far from over. Many actors and actresses are waiting to get on the set. Some are also participating in an early edition of the Behind the Scenes which incorporates interviews and is set to be released soon. They include popular names such as Madam Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, Yinka Davies,Hafiz Oyetoro, Production consultant, Tunji Bamishigbin and DOP Lukman Rahman.

  • Don’t push for cession, Soyinka tells Yoruba confab delegates

    Former Ogun State Governorship Aspirant under the platform of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Mr. Kayode Soyinka has advised Yoruba delegates at the National Conference, not to push for the possible cession of Yorubaland from the Nigerian federation.

    The three-time governorship aspirant made the appeal while speaking as a special guest at the meeting of the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) held in Abeokuta on Wednesday.

    The renowned journalist and publisher of Africa Today magazine reminded the gathering that the political leader of the Yorubas, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, left his comfort zone to go up-North to persuade the Sardauna of Sokoto to see reasons why Nigeria should be independent when the North said it was not ready to join the South in the struggle for independence.

    He said: “So, why should we now want to reinvent the wheel after 100 years of our sacrifices and 54 years of independence and a gruesome civil war in-between? If we cannot do better than Chief Awolowo in our vision for “One Nigeria”, we should at least do him the honour of not destroying the “One Nigeria” that he struggled for till his dying day – the Nigeria that he built”. The Yoruba, he said, were not myopic people and urged them to “always think big and look at the bigger picture, the advantages to all Yorubas in a United One Nigeria”.

    Soyinka appealed to delegates at the National Conference to rise up to the occasion rather than always thinking negative about the country: “Let us learn from our mistakes of the past, and acknowledge the gains and achievements we have made in our journey together so far because it could not be said that we have achieved nothing together as a nation over the past one hundred years, and let our findings help us to strengthen the ties that bind us. Those ties are today by far stronger than they were when Lugard joined us together 100 years ago or when we got our independence from Britain 54 years ago.”

  • Send Rivers police chief Mbu to fight Boko Haram, says Soyinka

    Send Rivers police chief Mbu to fight Boko Haram, says Soyinka

    Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka was scathing in his review of the security situation in Rivers State yesterday.

    He accused President Goodluck Jonathan of “looking elsewhere for the smoke in the plane” while “the fire is right on his own roof at Aso Villa.

    “Before the fire becomes unstoppable, something must be done to put it off,” he said.

    The eminent writer said the President should transfer the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mbu Joseph Mbu, to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, to fight the Boko Haram menace.

    Soyinka spoke in Osogbo on Wednesday during the celebration of the late African icon, Nelson Mandela, at the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding (CBCIU) in the Osun State capital.

    He said the likes of CP Mbu is not required in peaceful states like Rivers, Osun and Lagos, adding that “people who are so tough, so unbeatable and untouchable should be sent to Maiduguri to go and confront the greatest menace the country is facing now” (the Boko Haram).

    “Since Mbu is such a tough cop that is so powerful and mighty that he can steamroll over the democratic process of this nation and to show how tough he is, I recommend to Jonathan that he should be sent to Maiduguri to go and show his powers there with Boko Haram”, he said.

    Soyinka said he was ashamed to be a citizen of a country where a police commissioner could act with impunity and opened fire on unarmed people who were exercising their fundamental human rights as upheld by the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

    He described as “more shameful” that “there has not been any reaction from Aso Rock Villa on the ugly incident as at date.”

    Mbu said he ordered his men to smash a rally last Sunday by a non- governmental orgamisation in Port Harcourt because the rally was not permitted by him.

    Senator Magnus Abe was shot at with rubber bullet. Abe alongside Chief of Staff Government House in Rivers State Tony Okocha were injured. Abe is recuperating at a London hospital.

    Soyinka insisted that people do not require a police permit to meet and that the police are obliged to provide protection for people meeting peacefully.

    He remarked that if Nelson Mandela had been at the head of Nigeria, “any policeman or law enforcement officer who fires even a rubber bullet at innocent people – I am not even talking about a senator or politician or opposition – innocent people harmlessly holding a meeting and any officer be it soldier, policeman, vigilante who intrudes in such a meeting with violence using state’s power or the people’s armoury to injure or traumatise the citizens, such an individual would be in jail now, however highly placed”.

    Soyinka advised President Jonathan to quickly call Mbu to order before he wreaks havoc on the democratic process.

    The Nobel laureate pointed out that what is happening in Rivers State is not an affair of the state alone but that which concerns every Nigerian.

    He reminded Mbu of the existence and jurisdiction of the International Court of Crimes Against Humanity adding, “I want to tell Mbu that one of these days, he would find himself in front of that criminal court and he would go and keep company with Charles Taylor and the killers in Rwanda”.

  • Oshiomhole consoles Soyinka

    Oshiomhole consoles Soyinka

    Edo State Governor Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has commiserated with Prof. Wole Soyinka on the death of his daughter, Iyetade.

    She passed on at 48 after a brief illness.

    In a condolence message by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Peter Okhiria, Oshiomhole said: “We learnt with a shock about the death of your beloved daughter, Iyetade. Our hearts are with you and the Soyinka family at this period.

    “While we grieve over the death of your daughter, we are consoled that she lived a worthy life as a mother, an accomplished doctor and was an inspiration to many who knew her.

    “I offer my condolence and the commiseration of the people and Edo State government on this sad incident.

    “We pray God to grant you, the Soyinka family and the two children left by the deceased the courage to bear the sad loss. We also pray for a peaceful rest for her soul in the Lord’s bosom.”

  • Soyinka gathers poets, activists for Mandela

    Soyinka gathers poets, activists for Mandela

    Prior to the interment of the late South African President, Nelson Mandela, at a private ceremony in Qunu, his country home, yesterday, the Nigerian art community last Friday took time out to celebrate the memories of the late freedom fighter.
    Led by Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, it was an assemblage of political activists, public commentators and literary figures, who are noted for their undaunted campaigns for good governance.
    The passing of the South African icon provided yet another opportunity to mirror the unique place of sacrifice in leadership. Through thought-provoking poems, musicals and dance drama, the crowd, at the Freedom Park, venue of the Lagos Tribute, savoured with great interest, the eulogies on an extraordinary mortal.
    Grammy nominee, Femi Kuti, excited the crowd, performing with his Positive Force Band. His show at the event was complemented by other groups, including the Lagos City Chorale, Crown Troupes of Africa and the Black Image Theatre, among others.
    High-ranking Nigerians at the event included the Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; his counterpart from Rivers State, Honourable Rotimi Amaechi; Consulate General of the South Africa, Lulu Louis Mnguni; Director-General, Centre for Black Arts and African Civilisation, CBAAC, Professor Tunde Babawale; Barrister Femi Falana; Professor J.P Clark; President of Campaign for Democracy (CD), Dr. Joe Odumakin; Professor Kole Omotosho and literary guru, Odia Ofeimun, among others.
    Soyinka’s poem, No, I Say, was a rendition that highlighted selflessness, courage and sacrifice, dwelling on Mandela’s refusal to trade his incarceration for freedom at the expense of other activists who were serving in other prisons. The poem explains how Mandela refused to accept some negotiations, in spite of how some African leaders had pressed him into accepting conditions for his release.
    Governor Amaechi launched a direct one on the political situation in Nigeria, asking for a common rise against corruption and corrupt leaders.
    “You heard about $50 billion, but nobody is talking. In some countries, people will be on the streets. If you don’t take your destiny in your hand, we, leaders, will continue to steal. It is because you have stoned nobody that we are stealing,” Amaechi said, with reference to the money said to be missing from the Excess Crude Account.
    Reacting to the governor’s remarks, Ofeimum urged Nigerians to join hands by wrestling corrupt leadership as a way of returning the country to its past glory. His rendition, through a dance drama, A feast of return, complemented his thoughts on the issue. One would have thought that his position was pre-planned to meet the governor’s query.
    Known for his elevated literary style on political matters, Governor Aregbesola noted that Mandela was not only the symbol of the struggle, but an individual who defined the trajectory of his country.
    He took his peg from the rare spirit of forgiveness, which Mandela preached after his release. He described Mandela’s ingenuity as an “unsurpassable grace and that he (Mandela) brought no baggage of malice from prison. And he still forgave his jailers.”
    Everybody who spoke at the event left no one in doubt of the virtuous life of Mandela, hinging their thoughts on the need to immortalize him by emulating his legacy.
    Apparently impressed by the gathering and all that was said about his countryman, Mnguni thanked the organizers, while also noting that “We have lost a giant and we are going to miss him visiting the sick, old people’s homes, orphanages and home of abandoned children. We are going to miss that voice that preaches reconciliation, respect for fellow men and peace.”

  • Soyinka to journalists: fight corruption

    Soyinka to journalists: fight corruption

    Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka has urged the media to remain steadfast in the fight against corruption.

    The literary icon spoke in Lagos at the Eighth Wole Soyinka Investigative Journalists Awards at NECA House, Alausa, Ikeja.

    He said: “You should never be exhausted because corruption fights back, impunity fights back. So, never be exhausted.”

    Also, Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi said the survival of democracy depends on the ability of journalists to hold leaders accountable as the conscience of the nation.

    Amaechi, represented by Commissioner for Information Ibim Senamitari said: “If democracy must succeed, the media must play a critical role.

    “The media must follow the story, ask critical questions and take serious its role as the watchdog.”

    The event, organised by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), was attended by Mr. Dele Olojede, publisher of the defunct NEXT; his wife, Amma Ogan; The Nation columnist and WSCIJ Chairman, Prof Ropo Sekoni and Mr Robert Fitzpatrick, who represented Andrew Pocock, the British High Commissioner in Nigeria.

    The awards were in two categories: the Merit Award and the Honorary Award.

    Ms. Ogan, a former editor at The Guardian, received the Lifetime Award for Journalistic Excellence; Chidi Odinkalu, chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, got the Anti-Corruption Defender Award.

    In the Merit category, Ini Ekott and Ruona Agbroko-Meyer of Premium Times beat 12 others to emerge the WSCIJ Investigative Journalist of the Year.

    Their winning entry: How Nigeria Squanders Millions on Generators its Foreign Missions Don’t Need, details how the nation wastes tax payers’ money budgeting for generators in embassies located in nations with uninterrupted power supply.

    The story also won the Online Category.

    Besides Premium Times, Toborie Ovuorie was the runner-up in the Online category; Emmanuel Ogala received a commendation, also for the Online category.

    Aderonke Ogunleye’s story: How Nigeria’s Sports Commission Officials Enriched Self, Cheated Paralympians, won the Sports category.

    In other categories, Ekott and Bassey Udo of Premium Times won the Local Government category.

    Other winners are: Toyosi Ogunleye, editor, Sunday Punch, whose three-part narrative: The Rich Also Cry: Killer Metals in the Blood, won the Health category.

    Stanley Ogidi of The Punch was the winner and the runner-up in the Photo category. Temitayo Famutimi, from The Punch, won the Print category with a story of how a headteacher conducted virginity tests on pupils without their parents’ consent. Olusegun Elijah of National Standard magazine was runner-up in the Print category.

    Also, Nigeria’s Misapplied Talents by BusinessDay’s Asuquo Etim-Bassey won the Editorial Cartoon category, while Adeyemi Adesomojo of The Punch and Ayo Kazeem of Channels TV received commendations in the Print and Broadcast categories.

    The WSCIJ celebrates outstanding works in investigative reporting in Nigeria.