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Tag: Soyinka

  • June 12 alive, say NADECO, Soyinka, others

    June 12 alive, say NADECO, Soyinka, others

    The undying spirit of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election won by Chief Moshood Abiola was invoked yesterday in Lagos.

    The National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) which spearheaded the battle to restore the result of the historic election, organised a colloquium at Epetedo in Lagos where the late Abiola declared himself president in 1994.

    Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka and Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) National Leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu reaffirmed that the 1993 election remained a watershed in the history of Nigeria.

    The Southwest zone is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the election with a rash of activities.

    Public holidays have been declared by the governments of Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Osun and Ekiti states controlled by the ACN to reaffirm their belief that June 12 is the Democracy Day.

    The Federal Government marks May 29, the date Nigeria reverted to civil rule in 1999 as Democracy Day.

    At the NADECO Colloquium in Lagos yesterday, Mr. Fred Agbeyegbe delivered a paper titled “The need and modalities of a sovereign National Conference”.

    NADECO chairman Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu (rtd) said the colloquium was to x-ray the “current political landscape of a patently unhealthy polity of the country, Nigeria.”

    Among those at the event were NADECO Secretary Ayo Opadokun, Mrs. Dupe Onitire-A biola (one of ABiola’s wives), Rev. Tunji Adebiyi, Mr. Baba Omojola, Mr. Tony Nyam, Dr. Tokunbo Ajasin and Alhaji Yerima Shetima

    Apart from the call for the Sovereign National Conference, the pro- democracy group criticised the 1999 Constitution, which it claimed was imposed on the country, as the instrumentality for the usurpation of the collective sovereign will of the people.

    “ Ultimately, the sovereign will of the Nigerian people got subjugated by the imposition of a Constitution which, to date, enslaves them at the hands of the very predatory forces behind the entire June 12 annulment.

    “This usurpation of the sovereignty is being pursued as to ensure that it is reinforced, legitimised and made permanent, via the instrumentality of the 1999 Constitution, wholly imposed by the aforesaid tiny, military – propelled power clique, a critical mass of who are part of those that now hold sway in our civil rule, pseudo- democracy”.

    NADECO claimed that the usurpation of the sovereign will of the people has led to grievances, anger, disaffection and dissatisfaction in many quarters throughout the country. The group listed eight provisions in the Constitution which it regarded as anti- people, saying they “inevitably led to and manifest in increasing grievances of the people of Nigeria towards and in a country they wish to have exist and prosper properly in its diversity”.

    It argued that the remedy for the numerous grievances in the land cannot be found in the amendment of the Constitution by any organ of government , committee or the National Assembly. It described as mere grandstanding the impression that the Constitution is being amended by one particular organ and that it will end in futility.

    “ For remediation, the grievances occasioned by these provisions clearly transcend the realm of amendments by whatever organ of government, be it Committees or National Assembly. All the grandstanding about amendments in the National Assembly remain an exercise in futility, of unintended self- delusion and a dissipation of everybody’s time along as the main Constitutional grievances remain unaddressed. “

    NADECO claimed that only the naive would expect those who benefitted from the deformed Nigeria edifice to line up and dismantle the very basis of the illicit benefits. It called on Nigerians to hold opponents of SNC responsible should the country come to a violent dismemberment.

    “ NADECO asserts that all the violent agitations in Nigeria have their roots in these constitutional grievances and cannot be peacefully addressed otherwise than by a holistic engagement with the issues by way of a Sovereign National Conference of ethnic nationalities. In refusing to initiate this only plausible non- violent mechanism for addressing the Nigerian question, opponents of the SNC have pushed into a violent and disorderly debate of the same issues as now being conducted by the OPC, MASSOB, Egbesu, MEND, Boko Haram, and now Ombatse, probably others will follow,…Again, let it be stated, loud and clear that the opponents, not the proponents, of the vital and inevitable Sovereign National Conference of ethnic nationalities of Nigeria, should and will be held responsible and accountable if the country comes to violent dismemberment”, it charged.

    Prof Wole Soyinka and Action Congress of Nigeria (AC N) National Leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu have reflected on the June 12, 1993 presidential election and described those trying to wish away the historical day as time-wasters.

    In separate statements, the duo agreed that June 12 remains indelible in the memory of those who staked their all to enthrone democracy.The election, adjudged by local and foreign observers as Nigeria’s best ever, was annulled by military President Ibrahim Babangida.

    The playwright described the attempt to obliterate the day by some elements as futile as it remains “human spirit” that cannot die.

    Besides, the literary icon branded those playing up May 29 as Democracy Day above June 12 as run of the mill politicians.

    According to him, May 29 merely symbolises the day a compromised president took the baton of leadership following a compromised election.

    In his June 12 message, Soyinka described today as Nigeria’s real Democracy Day and a watershed in the nation’s history.

    In his view, it is unfortunate that those trampling on June 12 are those rescued from relegation, obscurity and the jaws of death and promoted to relevance and prominence by the June 12 spirit.

    The message reads: “We need to remind ourselves what June 12, 1993 represents. It is neither mere date, nor sentiment. It is simply – human spirit. What a futile undertaking it is then, when some individuals attempt to deny or crush it.

    “Yet it was the power of this very spirit that brought such out of relegation or obscurity, even from the jaws of death, and bestowed upon them relevance and prominence.

    “What June 12 possesses is exactly what May 29, or any other day lacks. The former was a spirit of unified purpose, the latter simply an egotistical appropriation of the gift of the former.

    “June 12 embodies unity of purpose, equity and justice, the manifestation of the sovereign will of a people. It remains forever a watershed of Nigerian history, no matter what the future holds.

    “I urge you to try a simple experiment: narrate the story of May 29 to a child and watch his or her reaction. On that day – that child would concede – an individual was installed as a compromise president following a compromise election. So, what’s new?

    “Now move on to unfold the tapestry of June 12. Run your finger along its traceries of citizen resolve, upheavals, of individual and group heroisms, of sacrifices and martyrdoms, the timeless narrative of human resilience.

    “Watch the difference in that child’s responses. Yet, even the beneficiaries of that day persist in their futile effort to kill the date and supplant it with another. Why should we be surprised?

    “It is that unprincipled game of substitution that they have carried even to subsequent elections, substituting names of the rightful winners of elections with others who were never even in contention.

    “It is this same mental compulsion that moves them to attempt to rob even a calendar date of its significance, its history, its potential for character formation and sense of national formation – and transformation.

    “We remain unshaken! Let others continue their sham ceremonies – after all, this is a democracy – or so we claim!

    “And that same Democracy mandates those who are dedicated to truth, who are tutored in the lessons of history, who understand that the human spirit is enduring, to hold fast onto the truthful anniversary, recognising none other, ensuring that this date is emblazoned across the sky, and takes root in the very earth that has soaked up the blood of our martyrs.”

    Tinubu, who took active part in the June 12 struggle, said the spirit of June 12 is not only alive but thriving. He said June 12 spirit will propel the process that will produce free and fair elections in future. Describing June 12 as Nigeria’s beacon in the dark, the former Lagos governor said the thirst for change is thick in the air and millions of Nigerians desperately want their votes to count in the next round of elections.

    His words: “June 12 remains indelibly etched in our memory, though it stands as a ringing indictment to the military and their civilian travellers who conspired against the wishes of millions of Nigerians. Because what happened on June 12 is deep-rooted and genuine, the spirit behind it has refused to die”.

    In a statement entitled: “Nigerians poised to re-enact the spirit of June in the next elections,” Tinubu said: “This pervading spirit of patriotic zeal has reached a critical mass powerful enough to propel the engines of change and the demand for a truly free and fair elections.The core of the June 12 elections was the transparency and the free and fair nature the election held. Twenty years after, Nigerians deserve no less.

    “The quality of our elections in the past few years, has not attained the quality and transparency that surrounded the conduct of the June 12, 1993 elections.

    “The symbol of June 12 and Nigeria’s Icon of Democracy, Chief Kashimawo Abiola gave to Nigeria a truly fine moment in history and taught us the lesson that Nigeria has all it takes to get it right and be great.

    “But we failed to recognize his mandate and heed the message of his victory at the poll.Rather, we rushed to crucify him and stifle the message of democracy for which he made great sacrifices.

    Since June 12, we have struggled to reach the level of democratic quality experienced at that moment. Today, we live halfway between sun and storm. We have yet to reach the democratic level of June 12.

    “The harvest time has come for Nigeria and Nigerians, but only if we imbibe the spirit of June 12 and abide with the lessons of that historic event. He said the present political circumstances is such that Nigerians must rally for change.

    “Beyond that, they must demand for reform in the electoral system, especially the use of full biometric system for our elections.

    “Across Africa, even in countries just stepping out of brutal civil wars, governments continue to embrace biometric technology as a safeguard against election manipulation and multiple voting.

    “Ghana, Sierra Leone, Kenya to mention a few have keyed in. Nigerians must mobilize to demand from this current government the application of full biometric system. We on our part are committed to the struggle to make this happen.”

    Tinubu lauded the late Chief MKO Abiola, who was the symbol of June 12, saying that the business mogul will forever remain a source of inspiration for all lovers of democracy and an avatar for justice and the rule of law.

    He said: “This is why we must never forget June 12. We must never lose hope that we can attain the level of democratic practice of that day.

    “We cannot change the past; we cannot turn back the hands of the clock. However, we can dedicate ourselves to a better future. We can go forward to a new, more complete June 12 that has an ending as benign as it’s beginning.”

     

  • Soyinka’s Ake: From book to film

    To say that the very sites of the stories told in the childhood memoir of Prof. Wole Soyinka, Ake: The years of childhood would be completely transformed today, would be an understatement.

    After all, the events occurred between 65 and 75 years ago. Change has effectively impacted upon the landscapes. The veil cast by time has settled upon their radiant settlements.

    For me, the journey into the production of Ake began 25 years ago. I was only 24 years old, restless, eager and in possession of what you would call “the pen of a ready writer”.

    The original idea to film one of Soyinka’s works in order to honour the author following his award of the Nobel prize had been that of the The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). How the choice changed from Season of Anomy, one of the writer’s ‘’ faction” novels to Ake: The years of childhood is a narrative for another day. But the real surprise was the Nobelist’s election of a very young and next-to-unknown writer in the person of the present writer to transmute the material to a television series. The late Kalu Okpi of the NTA, could hardly believe his eyes when he encountered the young sprig who assured him that he was the bearer of the name that he had come to seek, down in Ile –Ife.

    We spent several days roaming the terrain of Ake, and Abeokuta as a whole, led by no other than the author himself. In our company was the author’s youngest sister, Mrs. Folabo Ajayi, who also filled us with insights about the various locations as we happened upon them.

    The majority of the scenes recorded in Ake occurred in an ambience recorded in the book as the Parsonage Compound. Prof. Soyinka, corroborated generously by Mrs Ajayi, pointed out the compound’s outer recesses, the now fallen perimeter fences, e.t.c The triangle shaped visage was and is still bordered at one edge by the Ake cenotaph and the St. Peter’s Church, both of which feature in the narrative. The other edge of that geography was and is still demarcated by the Ake palace and the road running in its very front. A prominent road even in the 1930’s and 1940’s when Soyinka was a child.

    On this road, the women of Egba marched when they rioted, led by Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (mother of the famous musician Fela as well as an aunt to the author). Among the prime-movers of the Egba women’s movement was Eniola Soyinka (the author’s mother also known in the story as the Wild Christian). The movement would inadvertently devolve into the wholesale agitation for women’s rights that included the abolition of the poll tax on women and the institution of the universal adult suffrage, laws still in force as a result throughout Nigeria even today.

    On that same road, one of the prominent chiefs of Egba, the Balogun, made an arrogant swipe at the rioting women, despising the lot as creatures who pee-peed by the rear. He gave an arrogant gesture with a kick of his right limb and lost his gait, fell, unable to rise from the ground anymore.

    It was on that same road that an aged Ologboni (member of the influential Ogboni cult) unmindful of the trouble brewing within the palace, swaggered along, attired in his priestly robes but was rescued in time by the young Wole and his mother, drawing him into the shop run by the Wild Christian, also rapidly stripping him of his telling regalia.

    On this same road, the scene in which Pa Adatan took on the white soldiers whom he mistook for the residue of Hitler’s army, played out.

    On that same road, opposite the Ake palace, you will find the Wild Christian’s shop. Right now, the building housing the shop is marked, soon to be bulldozed by the Ogun State government.

    On that road still, adjacent to the Wild Christian’s shop, is the Centenary Hall. Though still standing, it is now desolate, largely overgrown with weeds and very dusty within.

    Inside the Parsonage Compound, there was once the St. Peter’s School where Soyinka’s father was the Headmaster (HM). Within that space also the HM’s family was quartered.

    There were other families there including those of the local bookshop manager, the local pharmacist (Osibo and Buko respectively), neighbours to the HM’s household. Their men formed the HM’s group of friends who engaged one other in intellectual banters, from the humorous to the downright scandalous, under the peering and inquisitive eyes of the young Wole.

    Today, the Parsonage retains only a shadow of itself, overgrown with weeds, the homesteads long abandoned, a hearth to geckos and domestic goats, the walls of the houses long paled and flaked.

    One of the fascinating discoveries during the location reconnaissance is the obsession of the period with a peculiar hue of the colour yellow, a mere stride away from the colour orange. It is evidenced from the applications on the walls of most houses belonging to that era.

    Most of the houses of that period still standing bask in that quaint daub of paint. Our production designers have caught the fascination of that era and are determined to restore structures implicated in the film to that pristine expression of beauty.

    Fortunately, the rocks overviewing the desolate buildings are ageless and immune to the machinations of time. Scenes where Wole went into isolation, wandering off all by himself and sought by his friend Osiki, the famed lover of the pounded yam (Oko oniyan) will be played successfully here.

    What about Uncle Sanya in the Wild Christian’s moonlight tale, where as a child, she went with other children and penetrated the fearsome rocks under the leadership of Uncle Sanya, into the haunt of the wood spirits, in search of snails!

    The Alake’s palace itself is a very key location in the whole saga. The interior spaces, the open courtyard. The storey building and its veranda are still conspicuous, and the upper deck where the Alake had his famous exchange with the enraged women of Egbaland.

    One look at the present composition of this arena and we could tell right away that Ake could not be shot there, unless we would pull down half the line-up of buildings! The oju ere, house of sculpture, which greet your eyes even as you burst into that front section now being remodelled into a voluptuous new structure, has fortunately defied the mutilations imposed by time. This would not do either. Reason being that it is already a conspicuous spectacle in Soyinka’s earlier movie Kongi’s Harvest shot in the mid-1960’s where he also played the lead role.

    Prof. Soyinka had given us a shot in the arm in an earlier conversation concerning the making of Ake: Do not insist on precision in terms of the actual locations, instead use auxiliaries where you have to.

    When he saw images arising out of the location surveys conducted towards the take off of this project, he expressed satisfaction at the effort that went into ensuring that the atmosphere for the stories are achieved.

    “This is gratifying,” he said.

    The film location for the Ake palace is now situated elsewhere, not far from the actual palace. The Sacred Heart Hospital retains its quaint architectural dignity but has recently been washed in truculent, extravagant colours of green and light gray. This is for the production designers to sort. Maybe we could kill the vociferous colours by shooting the scene where the exterior of the building is established in multiple tones.

    At Abeokuta Grammar School (AGS), the requisite buildings are in place. Now they are mildly defaced here and there by satellite TV dishes, wires and electric poles. That will be sorted, whether actually or digitally, by putting the period back in place.

    The main school hall where we would take the exterior scenes is also intact. The interior where we have the school assembly in which Ah-kenzy is caned publicly for impregnating a fellow student is reserved for the interior of the Centenary Hall. The residence of the Kutis also within the AGS is similarly in its primordial state and well maintained.

    At the Government College (GCI), Ibadan the pristine sections are intact, save for dilapidation, calling for extensive restoration work. Happily the GCI bell house is largely in place.

    Adopted locations especially for the District Officer’s residence and the Parsonage Compound are situated in Ibadan. They mostly require restoration. The scenes taking place in Lagos are the seaport and one or two Brazilian-styled streets, even as Mrs. Kuti arrives from England, driven in her period’s car.

    The film is employing late 1930’s models of three cars, one military truck and one bolekaja, mammy wagon transport truck, whose origins are in the colonial era.

     

     

    •Adeniyi is Executive Director of Ake Film Project

  • Elegy for a nation

    Elegy for a nation

    Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka wrote a long poem to the late Prof. Chinua Achebe when he turned  70 a little over 12 years ago. He authorised its reproduction today  as his ‘parting tribute to Chinua’ whose remains will be buried today in Ogidi, Anambra State. Prof. Soyinka said the tribute is ‘my way of taunting death, by pursuing that cultural, creative, even political communion that unites all writers with a divided vision of the possible— and even beyond the grave’. Below are excerpts from the poem:  

    Ah, Chinua, are you grapevine wired?

    It sings: our nation is not dead, not clinically

    Yet. Now this may come as a surprise to you,

    It was to me. I thought the form I spied

    Beneath the frosted glass of a fifty-carat catafalque

    Was the face of our own dear land – ‘own’, ‘dear’,

    Voluntary patriotese, you’ll note – we try to please.

    An anthem’s sentiment upholds the myth.

    Doctors IMF, World Bank and UNO refuse, it seems,

    To issue a certificate of death – if debtors die

    May creditors collect? We shall turn Parses yet,

    Lay this hulk in state upon the Tower of Silence,

    Let vultures prove what we have seen, but fear to say –

    For if Leviathan is dead, we are the maggots

    Probing still her monstrous womb – one certainty

    That mimics life after death. Is the world fooled?

    Is this the price of hubris – to have dared

    Sound Renaissance bugles for a continent?

    Time was, our gazes roamed the land, godlike,

    Pronounced it good, from Lagos to Lake Chad.

    The ghosts of interlopers would be exorcised,

    Not throwing the baby out with bathwater, but –

    Enthroning ours as ours, bearing names

    Lodged in marrow of the dead, attesting lineage.

    Consecrated brooms would sweep our earth

    Clean of usurpers’ footprints. We marched

    To drums of ancient skins, homoeopathic

    Beat against the boom of pale-knuckled guns.

    We vied with the regal rectitude of Overamwen –

    No stranger breath – he swore – shall desecrate

    This hour of communion with our gods! We

    Died with the women of Aba, they who held

    A bridgehead against white levy, armed with pestle,

    Sash and spindle, and a potent nudity – eloquent

    Abomination in the timeless rites of wrongs.

    Grim cycle of embattled years. Again we died

    With miners of Iva valley who undermined

    More than mere seams of anthracite. All too soon,

    Alas, we would augment, in mimic claims,

    In our own right, the register of martyrs. Oh,

    How we’ve exercised the right of righteous folly

    In defence of alien rhetoric… what God has joined,

    etcetera.

    For God, read white, read slaver surrogates.

    We scaled the ranges of Obudu, prospected

    Jos Plateau, pilgrims of rock-hills of Idanre.

    Floated on pontoons from Bussa to silt beds

    Of eternal Niger, reclaimed the mangrove swamps,

    Startling mudskipper, manatee, and mermaids.

    Did others claim the mantle of discoverers?

    Let them lay patents on ancestral lands, lay claim

    To paternity of night and day – ours

    Were hands that always were, hands that pleat

    The warp of sunbeam and the weft of dew,

    Ours to create the seamless out of paradox.

    In the mind’s compost, meager scrub yielded

    Silos of grain. Walled cities to the north were

    Sheaths of gold turbans, tuneful as minarets.

    The dust of Durbars, pyrotechnic horsemen

    And sparkling lances, all one with the ring of anvils

    From Ogun’s land to Ikenga’s. Rainbow beads, jigida

    From Bida’s furnaces vied across the sky with

    Iyun glow and Ife bronzes, luscent on ivory arches

    Of Benin. Legend lured Queen Amina to Moremi,

    Old scars of strife redeemed in tapestries

    Of myth, recreating birthpang, and rebirth. And, yes –

    We would steal secrets from the gods. Let Sango’s axe

    Spark thunderstones on rooftops, we would swing

    In hawser hammocks on electric pylons, pulse through cities

    In radiant energies, surge from battery racks to bathe

    Town and hamlet in alchemical light. Orisa-oke

    Would heal with herbs and scalpel. Ogun’s drill

    Was poised to plumb the earth anew, spraying aloft

    Reams of rare alloys. Futurists, were we not

    Annunciators of the Millennium long before its advent?

    In our now autumn days, behold our leaden feet

    Fast welded to the starting block.

    Vain griots! Still, we sang the hennaed lips and fingers

    Of our gazelle womenfolk, fecund Muses tuned

    To Senghorian cadences. We grew filament eyes

    As heads of millet, as flakes of cotton responsive

    To brittle breezes, wraith-like in the haze of Harmattan.

    Green of the cornfields of Oyo, ochre of groundnut pyramids

    Of Kano, indigo in the ancient dye-pots of Abeokuta

    Bronzed in earth’s tonalities as children of one deity –

    We were the cattle nomads, silent threads through

    Forestries and cities, coastland and savannah,

    Wafting Maiduguri to the sea, ocean mist to sand dunes,

    Alas for lost idylls. Like Levi jeans on youth and age,

    The dreams are faded, potholed at joints and even

    Milder points of stress. Ghosts are sole inheritors.

    Silos fake rotundity – these are kwashi-okor blights

    Upon the landscape, depleted at source. Even

    The harvest seeds were long devoured. Empty hands

    Scrape the millennial soil at planting.

    But Chinua, are you grapevine wired? Do you

    Tune in, listen? There is old music in the air.

    The word is out again, out from the closet.

    Renaissance beats are thumbed in government lairs,

    In lobbies, caucuses, on promotion posters,

    In parliaments. Academe’s close behind. Renaissance

    Haunts beer and suya bar, street and rostrum,

    Inhaled as tobacco smoke, chewed as kola,

    Clerics beatify the word, lawyers invoke it.

    Never word more protean, poised to incarnate

    In theses, conferences, investments. A historic lure

    Romances the Diaspora. Gang-raped, the continent

    Turns pregnant with the word – it’s sworn, we shall be

    Born again, though we die in the attempt…

  • Soyinka, Sowore task FG on Boko Haram insurgency

    LITERARY Icon, Prof Wole Soyinka, has called on the Nigerian government to go back to the very beginning of the indoctrination of Boko-Haram sect members in schools if they intend to solve the threat and killings by the group.

    He made the call while speaking on AJStream, a programme on AIJazeera cable network on Wednesday, monitored in Benin.

    The Nobel Laureate said Boko Haram is a local movement, adding that it is part of an international problem that needs to be checked. “Boko Haram claim they are fighting for their religion. We have knowledge and pronouncement of other muslims that they are not true Muslims. That what they are doing is not approved by any teaching in Islamic religion.”

    Meanwhile, founder of Sahara Reporter, Omoyele Sowore, has attributed the problem of insecurity, killings and destruction of lives and property to bad governance by Nigerian leaders.

    He made the disclosure while answering questions at AJStream, a programme on Aljazeera cable network on the operations of Boko Haram in the northern part of the country.

  • Tension rises in Rivers

    Tension rises in Rivers

    -Five anti-Amaechi lawmakers at Assembly

    –Soyinka: stop executive impunity

    -Speaker, commissioner allege emergency rule plot

    -PDP chair calls for calm

     

    THERE was tension yesterday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital where two factions of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are struggling for control.

    Five lawmakers loyal to the Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, were at the House of Assembly, escorted by Commissioner of Police Mbu Joseph Mbu.

    The 27 pro-Governor Rotimi Amaechi lawmakers, including Speaker Otelemaba Dan Amachree, stayed away.

    Pro-Wike protesters, armed with placards bearing various inscriptions and singing anti-Amaechi songs, thronged the Assembly and the secretariat of Obio/Akpor Local Government in Rumuodomaiya, Port Harcourt.

    The protesters, from the 23 local government areas, called for the resignation of Amaechi or his impeachment, as well as the removal of the Speaker.

    To the state government, it was all part of a grand plan to provoke violence and pave the way for emergency rule and the governor’s removal.

    The protesters also called for the reinstatement of the Chairman of Obio/Akpor Local Government, Timothy Nsirim, his deputy, Solomon Eke, and the 17 councillors suspended on April 22 by the 27 pro-Amaechi legislators.

    The Chief Felix Obuah-led executive of the PDP also condemned the speaker’s call for Mbu’s redeployment, accusing Amachree of raising false alarm.

    But the speaker insisted that the police commissioner should be removed for taking sides and acting the script of “Abuja forces”.

    The case filed by the 27 suspended lawmakers against the Obuah-led PDP at a Port Harcourt High Court presided over by Justice Henry Aprioku was yesterday adjourned till May 23.

    The five lawmakers — Michael Chinda (Obio/Akpor II Constituency), Kelechi Godspower Nwogu (Omuma), Evans Bipi (Ogu/Bolo), Martins Amaewhule (Obio/Akpor I) and Victor Ihunwo (Port Harcourt III) — said they got information from the Clerk of the Assembly, Emmanuel Amaewhule Ogele, that the House would reconvene at 10 am yesterday and they decided to attend.

    The speaker, who spoke through his Press Secretary, Jim Udede, said the House would have reconvened at 10 am, but decided to postpone the sitting indefinitely when he was hinted of a planned protest, which he claimed could lead to the breakdown of law and order. It was not to allow “enemies of progress” to declare emergency in the state, he said.

    The five anti-Amaechi lawmakers moved to the Assembly, amid tight security, and stayed in their offices. They were still there as at the time our reporters left the Assembly around 1 pm.

    They said they were waiting for the 27 pro-Amaechi lawmakers to show up for the sitting, stressing that they were not informed of the postponement. The speaker admitted that they were not informed, because, according to him, the information that Wike’s supporters would unleash mayhem came very late on Sunday.

    On April 22, the Chairman of Obio/Akpor council, Prince Timothy Nsirim; his deputy, Solomon Eke; and all the 17 councillors loyal to Wike were suspended. The Obuah-led PDP executive, also on April 29, suspended the 27 pro-Amaechi lawmakers, including the speaker.

    The five anti-Amaechi lawmakers condemned the suspension of Nsirim and others.

    Bipi said: “How would the 27 lawmakers have suspended Nsirim and others, without following due process? Where did they get the committee’s report? Nothing like that. The report was forged. No petition against Nsirim and others.”

    Ihunwo said: “We are supposed to reconvene today, but we cannot see any of them (27 pro-Amaechi lawmakers). We believe in the rule of law. In suspending Nsirim and others, they did not follow Order 22, Rules 1 and 4, which make it mandatory for the petition to be laid before the House by a lawmaker.

    “What is chasing them could be what they did to Obio/Akpor Local Government chairman and others. Rivers people should be calm and law-abiding.”

    Chinda said: “The procedure through which they suspended the Obio/Akpor chairman and others is wrong. They did not follow Order 22, Rules 1 and 4.

    “There was no petition against Nsirim and others. They should stop deceiving Rivers people. There should not have been any caretaker committee in Obio/Akpor council.”

    Nwogu and Amaewhule also corroborated the three others, insisting that there was no petition against the suspended officials. They maintained their suspension was illegal.

    The anti-Amaechi protesters, in over 100 buses, under the umbrella of Grassroots Democratic Initiative (GDI) and led by Kinikanwo Amadi, stormed the locked gate of the secretariat of Obio/Akpor council at Rumuodomaya around 7:30 am.

    But battle-ready policemen did not allow the protesters into the expansive secretariat. They later moved to the Rivers House of Assembly on Moscow Road in Port Harcourt.

    The peaceful protest led to a heavy traffic jam on the ever-busy road to the Port Harcourt International Airport and Moscow Road, with the youths declaring that the protest would continue daily, until the caretaker committee members and chairman vacate their offices for Nsirim, his deputy and councillors.

    Some of their placards read: “Felix Obuah, man of the people”; “Go Round (Felix Obuah), Agwu Zumba”; “GDI is in full support of what policemen are doing”; “Dike David Chikordi (chairman of a seven-member caretaker committee inaugurated on April 23) out, Hon. Timothy Nsirim in”; and “Hon. Timothy Nsirim is our choice. Rivers State House of Assembly, leave him alone.”

    Speaking for the protesters, ex-Security Adviser of Obio/Akpor Local Government, Godwin Ikeazor said: “We are condemning the action of Governor Chibuike Amaechi and members of Rivers House of Assembly, who suspended Nsirim, his deputy and 17 councillors.

    “We are asking the caretaker committee members to leave office and also call on Governor Amaechi to resign from office within 48 hours. Amaechi masterminded the suspension of the performing, focused and hardworking Hon. Nsirim and others.

    “The leader of Rivers House of Assembly, Chidi Lloyd, should also resign with immediate effect. Lloyd is the person causing the whole trouble for Amaechi. He is making noise here and there, but he could not win the last election in his constituency, if not through the help of Amaechi, who pleaded with his people.

    “We will continue with the protest, until the caretaker committee members leave office. We want Hon. Timothy Nsirim to return to the office. The allegations levelled against him are baseless, untrue and frivolous.”

    The leadership of the PDP also “strongly” condemned the statement credited to the speaker, calling for the redeployment of police commissioner.

    The Obuah-led PDP said: “The call on the Inspector-General of Police (Mohammed Abubakar) to redeploy the Rivers State Police Commissioner (Mbu Joseph Mbu) is baseless, malicious, reckless and another demonstration of legislative rascality.

    “Mr. Mbu is a professional police officer, who has discharged his duties diligently and should not be dragged into partisan politics.

    “We hereby urge the Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly to concentrate on the business of lawmaking, for the good people of Rivers State, rather than blaming his incapacity and ineptitude on some federal institutions in the state.

    “The PDP leadership in the state is also using this medium to ask the speaker and his cohorts to stop raising false alarm and spreading rumours about impeachment of the governor of Rivers State, arrest of state functionaries and the plan to declare a state of emergency in Rivers State. The PDP in Rivers State is not aware of the said plans.

    “It is pertinent to state that no reasonable and responsible government is administered on the basis of cheap blackmail. Enough of the unnecessary and unwarranted political tension in the state.”

    Obuah, while responding to questions from reporters, after reading the five-paragraph statement, in company of the party’s secretary, Walter Ibibia, and other members of his executive, declared that the speaker’s “blackmail” was capable of chasing away investors and heighten tension in the state.

    The PDP chairman, who is a former chairman of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, also admonished Rivers people to disregard all the statements credited to the speaker, who he said wanted to cause confusion, insisting that the police commissioner acted fast, to prevent the breakdown of law and order and should be encouraged, rather than being castigated.

    Obuah noted that no problem had been recorded in Rivers state, since Mbu took over as police commissioner about two months ago, stressing that the speaker and 26 other members disrespected the leadership of PDP in the state, by refusing to reinstate Nsirim and others, within the 48-hour ultimatum given.

    He added that there was no plan to impeach Amaechi and that no fake mace was smuggled into Port Harcourt to remove the speaker and governor.

    Obuah, while commenting on yesterday’s protest by pro-Wike supporters, said: “Members of my executive and I are in the state for peace. Rivers people should remain calm. It is not in our character to use thugs.

    “Thugs were not involved in yesterday’s peaceful protests. The people of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area protested because of injustice and showed their displeasure to the illegal removal of Prince Nsirim, his deputy and the 17 councillors.”

    The speaker issued a statement in which he insisted that there was a plan to create violence and declare a state of emergency. Besides, he condemned what he called the plot to make the sitting of the legislature violent.

    Amachree said: “The overall plan is to introduce gunshots outside the chambers, create pandemonium in the Assembly and its environs. Thus paving the way for the declaration of a state of emergency.

    “All those who live and do business in Rivers State know that the Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has worked very hard for the return and sustenance of peace in Rivers State since he assumed office in 2007.

    “The Rivers State House of Assembly, as an active partner, stands with the governor and challenges anyone, who is part of the plot to destabilise Rivers State to do the following, before declaring any emergency in Rivers State:

    “Declare a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Kano states, where Boko Haram and their collaborators are killing innocent men, women and children on a daily basis. Identify, arrest and prosecute those who carried out the Madalla Christmas killings of December 2011.

    “In Bayelsa State, 12 policemen were killed in Azuzuama Creek, followed by another round of killings in Lobia1 last weekend, without a state of emergency declared in the home state of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    “We state again that Rivers State is peaceful and that the symbol of democracy in the state, the Rivers State House of Assembly, is peaceful and very orderly. Let the law enforcement agencies cooperate with us, not to be tools against the people.

    “There is a plan to arrest the speaker and other key members of the Rivers House of Assembly before May 7, 2013 and also to arrest the Rivers Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Chamberlain Peterside, as soon as possible, so that a state of emergency can be declared in Rivers State before May 9, 2013.

    “Rivers people, is this the way to go? Please rise against the plot to abort democracy in Rivers State.”

    The Rivers Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, speaking with reporters in Port Harcourt yesterday, said that some hoodlums were trying to cause disaffection, thereby pretending that there was chaos in the state.

    Semenitari said: “I know that Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi is in full control of the state. There are no matters for concern in Rivers State.

    “We are certain that there is no chaos in Rivers State and that government is in full control of the situation.

    “As far back as about two weeks ago, we heard of rumours that a few miscreants were making an attempt to foist something that is totally undemocratic on the people of Rivers State.

    “We are aware that people were imagining that it would be possible to attempt a Dariye treatment in Rivers state, where they would take just five members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, out of 32 members and attempt an impeachment of the governor of Rivers State.

    “This is Rivers State, this is not Plateau State and Nigerians are lot more aware now, than they were at that time. This democracy must stand and the people of Rivers State will defend every vote that they have cast for Governor Chibuike Amaechi.

    “There is no way it is going to happen, that a very tiny insignificant minority in the Rivers State House of Assembly will be able to oust Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi.

    “As at yesterday, the Chairman of Obio/Akpor Local Government council issued a statement saying that it had come to his notice that some disgruntled elements and certain politicians had been going around local government councils across Rivers State to see if they could mobilise a crowd.

    “I was told that they went as far as Khana and Emohua to try and get a group of boys to join them to come to protest the removal of Obio/Akpor council chairman, his deputy and 17 councillors. I found it a little curious, but I believe that because the council chairman is the Chief Security Officer of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, that he certainly knew what he was talking about.

    “He went ahead and notified the relevant security agencies about this threat. I believe he was on top of the situation. As at this (yesterday) morning, I heard that a group of people were at the Rivers State House of Assembly.”

    As the Obuah-led executive of PDP was suspending the 27 Assembly members on April 29, a Port Harcourt High Court, presided over by Justice Henry Aprioku, was granting an order of interim injunction, restraining the PDP from suspending the pro-Amaechi lawmakers. The court directed that the order should stand, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.

    The case was adjourned till May 23.

    Rivers Progressive yesterday condemned the take over of the Rivers State House of Assembly Complex.

    In a statement by Owei Lawson, the group said: “Today, 6 May, 2013, over two dozens armed men converged on Rivers State House of Assembly in a desperate attempt to disrupt activities in the Assembly and circumvent the wishes of the people.

    “All over the world, the legislature is sacred and remains a critical arm of government because of its representative nature. Therefore, Rivers Progressives condemn this invasion in its entirety.

    “As a people, we must be vigilant and continually remind ourselves that these are perilous times. Therefore, the interest of a few politicians in Abuja must not be allowed to triumph over the aspirations of our people.

    “We are not unmindful of this orchestrated act, which is geared towards engendering disaffection and mayhem, all in an attempt to provide sufficient reason for the Presidency to declare a state of emergency in our peaceful state. We must not fold our arms and watch this act of lawlessness.

     

  • Soyinka: stop executive impunity in Rivers

    Soyinka: stop executive impunity in Rivers

    Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka yesterday for the second time, intervened in the face-off between the Federal Government and the Rivers State government.

    “Break this spiraling culture of executive impunity”, he said in a statement entitled “Cool it, President Goodluck Jonathan,” yesterday.

    Soyinka said: “The increasing flash points in the nation have reached an unsustainable level, and responsible governance must accept that it is an urgent duty to diminish, not increase them.

    “Even the notoriously short Nigerian memory remains traumatised by recollection of the rape of Anambra State that was enabled by the connivance of federal might, and the abandonment of all moral scruples in executive disposition.

    “The people of Ogun state were humiliated by the antics of a power besotted governor, with their elected legislators locked out of the state Assembly for upwards of a year.

    “That hideous travesty was again made possible by the abusive use of the police. Even a child in this nation knows that the police derives its enabling and operational authority from the dictates of the Centre, so there can be no disguising whose will is being executed wherever democratic norms are flouted and the people’s rights ground to mush under dictatorial heels.

    “Before the irretrievable point of escalation is reached, we have a duty to sound a collective alarm, even without the lessons of past violations of constitutional rights and apportionments of elected representatives of the people, and their consequences.

    “There is an opportunity in Rivers state to break this spiraling culture of executive impunity – manifested in both subtle and crude ways – that is fast becoming the norm in a post-military dispensation that fitfully aspires to be called a democracy.”

  • PDP crisis: don’t cheapen Judiciary, Soyinka warns

    PDP crisis: don’t cheapen Judiciary, Soyinka warns

    Faction suspends 27 pro-Amaechi lawmakers 

     

    Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka warned yesterday against the debasement and manipulation of the judiciary to avoid anarchy.

    The dramatist spoke in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital where two factions are battling for the soul of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Also yesterday, the Chief Felix Obuah-led state executive of the party suspended 27 of the 32 members of the House of Assembly, who are loyal to Governor Rotimi Amaechi. Among those suspended is Speaker Otelemaba Dan Amachree. Their seats were declared vacant.

    But the lawmakers insisted that they had secured a Port Harcourt High Court injuction barring the party from suspending them.

    Soyinka, standing in front of the Governor’s Office in the Government House — Amaechi beside him — also described the choice of Port Harcourt as the World Book Capital 2014 as a great honour for Nigeria, the state and Port Harcourt.

    He said he was glad to be in a position to assist the state government, using the instrumentality of literacy, education and knowledge to counter “the negativists”, “violent negativists as represented in movements like Boko Haram”.

    On the deepening Rivers PDP crisis, the playwright said: “The judiciary right now, while it is trying to reform itself, recognises the fact that there are still some dark areas. It is the effect of the dark areas that seems to be creating a crisis in Rivers State right now.

    “I am just alarmed. I am alarmed that a situation exists at all, where it strikes me. It appears to me that the judiciary is being manipulated. That is the impression which I had and that is an alarm which should be sounded in every corner of the nation.

    “Witch-hunting is a very heavy word. Let me just say this generally, that I hate evidence of pettiness in governance. Pettiness at any level is unbecoming of any democratic situation.”

    Commenting on the grounded state government aircraft, Soyinka said: “I am a citizen of this nation. So, I am affected personally by what is happening at the opposite end of the nation. Those who feel that any kind of transgression of the collective rights of groups will not affect, will not have a kind of ripple effect, which will affect other parts of the nation, must be living in a cloud.

    “I am concerned and I will be quite frank with you. I am very much concerned about the imbroglio in which the state (Rivers) appears to be involved at the moment and my main comment is, for heaven’s sake, whatever happens internally between parties and so on, please do not debase and do not manipulate the judiciary. That is my appeal to governance at all levels.

    “Please, do not manipulate the judiciary, because when you do, you have chaos, you have total anarchy and you reduce the nation to a space of complete breakdown of law and order, of what is known as anomie, which is what this nation had better avoided.”

    The PDP leadership dispute was pending in a court in Port Harcourt when Justice Ishaq Bello of an Abuja High Court assumed jurisdiction in the matter. He handed victory to the faction loyal to the Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike.

    Obuah, with whom was party Secretary Walter Ibibia and other members of the executive, also stated that the 48-hour ultimatum given Amaechi would enable him to explain the status of the aircraft.

    He noted that the controversy generated by the real ownership of the aircraft and its operation had brought embarrassment to the party.

    The factional chairman stressed that the party’s decision to suspend the 27-pro Amaechi lawmakers was in view of their refusal to rescind the April 22 suspension of the Chairman of Obio/Akpor Local Government, Prince Timothy Nsirim, his vice and all the seven councillors loyal to Wike, at the end of the 48-hour ultimatum given to them to do so.

    He said: “The party views with grave concern, the unfolding facts surrounding the ownership of the purported aircraft and will not fold its arms and allow monumental fraud to be perpetrated in Rivers State. It is unacceptable and embarrassing to our great party, that public funds are hopelessly mismanaged. As a result, these questions must be answered by the Rivers State government:

    “Where is the aircraft purportedly bought with Rivers State fund and tax payers’ money? Where have the billions of naira taken from the coffers of the Rivers State government gone and for what purpose was it appropriated and where is it diverted?

    “The government of Rivers State, led by Rt. Hon Rotimi Amaechi, owes a public explanation to the entire people of Rivers State and the PDP in particular, as to the true owners of the Bombardier BD 700. They should also explain the identity and the role played by the Bank of Utah of the USA in the purchase of the aircraft and the identity of the owners of the said company to be unveiled.

    “On Monday, April 22, 2013, the party issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the Rivers State House of Assembly to rescind the order on the dissolution of Obio/Akpor council, which was flagrantly disobeyed.

    “The party hereby suspends all 27 members of the House of Assembly that carried out such action while their matter is referred to disciplinary committee for further action.”

    The five lawmakers loyal to Wike, who are not affected by the suspension, are: Michael Chinda (Obio/Akpor II constituency), Kelechi Godspower Nwogu (Omuma), Evans Bipi (Ogu/Bolo), Martins Amaewhule (Obio/Akpor I) and Victor Ihunwo (Port Harcourt III).

    Those suspended are Otelemaba Dan Amachree (Speaker, Asari Toru I), Augustine Paul (Abua/Odua), Ewor Nname (Ahoada East I), Nwuche Ibiso (Ahoada East II), Dr. Chigbo Sam Eligwe (Ahoada West). Onari Brown (Akuku Toru I), Anabaraba Benibo (Akuku-Toru II), Ikuinyi Owaji Ibani (Andoni), Horsfall Godstimes (Asari-Toru II), Aye People Atamah (Bonny).

    Others are: Tonye Harry Ezekiel (Degema), Chidi Lyold (Leader of the House, Emohua), Amadi Victor (Etche 1), Golden Ngozi Ben Chioma (Etche II), Barikor Innocent (Gokana), Wanjoku Chikere Azubike (Ikwerre), Legborsi Nwidadah (Khana 1), Leyii Kwanee (Deputy Speaker, Khana II), Gift Nwokocha (Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni I), Lucky Odili (Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni II), Belema Okpokiri (Okrika), Miller Andrew Anderson (Opobo/Nkoro), Victoria Wobo Nyeche (Port Harcourt 1), Irene Martins Inimgba (Port Harcourt 11) and Felicia Taneh (Tai).

    On April 15, Justice Ishaq Bello of an Abuja High Court confirmed the election of Obuah and members of his executive, which led to the sack of Chief Godspower Ake, a former National Vice Chairman (Southsouth) of the PDP, and members of his executive.

    Ake and members of his executive emerged from the state congress of the PDP at the Alfred Diete-Spiff Civic Centre, Port Harcourt on March 17, 2012.

    Amaechi, addressing his supporters at the main gate of the Government House, Port Harcourt, described the judgment as the desecration of the temple of justice, calling on the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Maryam Mukhtar, to quickly intervene.

    Wike, who wants to be governor in 2015, is a former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and doubled as the Director-General of the Amaechi Campaign Organisation in 2011. Amaechi and Wike are Ikwerre. The governor felt somebody from another ethnic group should succeed him.

  • Soyinka, Aregbesola, Uduaghan, others condole with Awolowo family

    Nobel Laureate Prof Wole Soyinka, Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola, his Delta State counterpart, Emmanuel Uduaghan and former House of Representatives Speaker Dimeji Bankole yesterday visited the matriarch of the Awolowo family, Chief H. I. D. Awolowo, to condole with her and other members of the family on the of death Chief Oluwole Awolowo.

    Others at the Ikenne home of the Awolowos were Senator Bode Olajumoke as well as the children of the late Ondo State Governor Adekunle Ajasin.

    Soyinka and Aregbesola urged Mama Awolowo and other members of the family to “take heart”.

    The publisher of the Nigerian Tribune titles died last Wednesday in a London hospital. He was 70.

    The Nobel laureate, who spent some time with the Awos before signing the condolence register, wrote: “To the Awolowo family and Mama, take heart.”

    Aregbesola was accompanied by Dr. Charles Iyore, a member of Osun State Committee on Urban Renewal.

    The governor urged the family to take with equanimity the loss of Oluwole to death. He said death is an inevitable end for everybody living being.

    Aregbesola said: “One clear lesson is the transience of life itself; it’s not about him but about the fact that death is a certainty that must come to every living being, not only human but every living thing will pass on.

    “To me, the moral, the lesson here is the courage of the matriarch of this dynasty and her fortitude, her strength of character and spirit, her ability to imbue this. I pray that the Almighty will further strengthen her, endure her with the capacity to weather this.

    “It is not easy for a human being to have the experience she has had but God, in His Omniscience, will provide her the capacity to bear it. We must all join in praying for her for greater fortitude. To the family, my wish and prayer is that this experience will never happen again.”

    Uduaghan described the late Oluwole as someone who was concerned with Nigeria’s unity.

    He said: “He (Oluwole) was like an elder brother and, of course, as a publisher, you know the Tribune titles are quite popular in Nigeria. I remember on two or three occasions I had some private discussions with him. He was concerned about the unity of Nigeria. He was concerned about development of Nigeria and he used the opportunity of being a publisher to propagate, especially the unity of Nigeria, and the progress of the country.

    “Of course, we know that his father was somebody who gave people like myself the opportunity to go to school. I grew up in a community where there was no light, where there was no water and no amenities. But there was a school and I attended the school free of charge. So, when I say I have an emotional attachment to the family, that was the beginning of my emotional attachment to this family.

    “So, he did his best to see how we Nigerians could be our brothers’ keepers.”

  • Soyinka to inaugurate Odu’a Hall of Fame

    Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka will tomorrow inaugurate a historical centre, the Odu’a Hall of Fame and Museum, established by Odu’a Investments Limited.

    It is located on the 24th floor of the Cocoa House in Dugbe, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

    In a statement, the company’s Corporate Affairs Manager, Mr. Victor Ayetoro, said: “The Hall of Fame and Museum will serve as a centre of attraction with audio-visual display and documentary of some distinguished individuals, who have contributed immensely to the growth of the nation and stand out in their chosen fields. It will also showcase objects of historical or artistic values relating to the Yoruba.”

  • Achebe versus Soyinka

    Achebe versus Soyinka

    Barely two decades ago, poet and playwright Femi Osofisan delivered a broadside, and it was as a keynote speaker at an annual convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors. According to the big-eyed lover of theatrics, only two serious Nigerian authors inhabited our literary firmament: Wole Soyinka and Niyi Osundare.

    Not a few writers and critics were scandalised by his claim. Many thought it was deliberately contrarian, an act of drama by a dramatist to draw attention to himself not by the pithy wisdom of his declaration but the mere vanity of it. He was a public desperado banging his shoes to gain attention.

    The first question thrown at him was predictable: What of Chinua Achebe? Wearing a glum mien almost as defiance, he maintained his assertion and said many people paid attention to Things Fall Apart, and that was not even his most accomplished work.

    At the time, I was in my mid-twenties and just beginning to overcome my illusion from my teen years. I was weaned on Things Fall Apart, read it, worshiped its creator and placed Achebe as the preeminent deity in the literary pantheon not only on the African continent but all over the world. But how many writers did I know and how many books had I read? How skilled was I in the art of appreciating the collaborations of words into narratives?

    But as I grew out of my naivety towards the end of my years at the Obafemi Awolowo University, renouncing Achebe as a god of literature was like a shock of atheism in the church. I was abandoning the temple, unfrocking the priests and demystifying the canon. I became an apostate in the true religion. I felt conned by my breeders. I ate the poisoned diet, malnourished by untutored chefs.

    Literature belongs to a complex world, and because everyone can pick a novel or play and read, the impression often comes across that it is everyone’s game. George Bernard Shaw said snidely that “vocations are a conspiracy against the laity.” He was right. Not everyone can be a medical doctor, or software analyst or Supreme Court judge. Everyone can sing but not everyone can tell why a good song is great although they have their personal attitudes and predilections. Not everyone can postulate on good literature. Achebe’s works were good literature, but whether he wrote a great novel, leave that to those who know.

    I never intended to write another column after last week’s in which I echoed William Shakespeare when I characterised Achebe as a self from self. That is, he struggled with alienation throughout his life.

    Since the bard’s death, many people either by subtle references or direct barbs have tried to do two wrong things. First, they claimed he deserved the Nobel Prize but was deprived. Two, that Achebe was greater than Wole Soyinka. By inference, they claimed that Soyinka did not earn the prize and the wise men of Stockholm ought to have given the medal to the author of TFA.

    How come the father of African literature did not win the preeminent prize? The phrase, made popular when he won the Booker Prize Lifetime honour, has been appropriated to imply that Achebe was number one on the continent. So why did he not win the prize? First, TFA was a great book not because of its literary properties but because of its ideological potency. The Nobel Prize does not go to a novelist whose work is signposted by sociological fixations supplanting narratives with long pages of how Igbo villages are organised. When Osofisan asserted that TFA was not his best book, he meant that more attention should go to Arrow of God, a better book. So why do his admirers say less of Arrow of God but pay more encomiums on TFA. It is because they are struck by the timely power of the book. The West, embraced TFA for its introduction of its peoples to the dignity of African society, a thing they did not care to glean from accomplished works that came before TFA. Even the writer, Amos Tutuola, with his Palm wine Drinkard, came long before. But the west wanted an African to write like them so they could applaud him. And Achebe did it in a simple language.

    Did he succeed by using the language as a tool of subversion? Hardly. For a sampler of that sort, read Yambo Ouologuem’s Bound to Violence. TFA was a story of a clash of culture, which was nothing new. He wrote about the assertion of local pride, which was hardly original. But it was a counter-narrative, and it was done with gusto and minimal dexterity, and that was enough for them. They were amazed at the manipulation of proverbs and other manifestations of local colour. But the proverbs were never original, just like many of the proverbs in Ola Rotimi’s The Gods Are Not To Blame.

    The other novel often quoted was A man of the People and critics have credited him with prophetic insight. The novel predated the 1966 coup. But it was hardly original because the conversation was already in the air on the continent. So he wrote good works, not great works, not textured by deeper insights that you would see in better accomplished works.

    Achebe was nominated severally for the Prize, but he did not get it because his works had to be weighed against the competition, other works also nominated by various groups. It was the comparison that exposed his works. If TFA was not his best work, it goes without saying that it was a book that thrived on popularity not subtlety. Literature is not about the popular text. It is about high art. If Achebe influenced a generation of writers, that makes him a great writer. But it is a testament to theme and not artifice.

    Soyinka, on the other hand, won based on his plays and poems. If we were to judge by popularity, many would pick the Lion and Jewel and the Jero Plays as Soyinka’s masterpieces. But far from it. They compare in richness to TFA. Many who cavil at his prize have probably not read the following: Death and the King’s Horsemen, Madmen and Specialists, Kongi’s Harvest, A dance of the Forest, The Road, Opera Wonyosi, among others. Each of these works is a stunner, primed with layer after layer of thought and meaning wrapped in narratives.

    Those who read TFA like clockwork may be put off by some of Soyinka’s opus. So they should not obsess out of ignorance. They should read first. If you knock Soyinka on obscurity, you have a right. But high art is not always easy to understand. Those who claim to enjoy TFA cannot write a literate essay on the book and why it is high art.

    Because of his stature as a playwright, some downplay his other gifts. In the Nobel citation, he was also praised for his prison Notes, The Man Died, as well as his long poems like Ogun Abibiman, which I guess many readers have not even heard of.

    It is true that some great writers are passed over for the prize. But few disagree that those who win deserve the accolades. The other Nigerian I expected to win was Christopher Okigbo, who was tragically lapped up by the Civil War.

    Achebe was a good story teller, so was my grandmother. Turning from a raconteur to an art of sublimity and depth belongs to the masters. Because of his influence on a continent, I compare him with Samuel Johnson of the Shakespearean era. He was described as a great writer but not a great artist.