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Tag: Wole Soyinka

  • Another season of anomie?

    Another season of anomie?

    Why should anyone be annoyed when outsiders say that Nigerians are not capable of sustaining democratic culture?

    At 52 years of age, Nigeria is experiencing another troubling season of anomie. The first season came at the hands of a civilian government; the second and third at the instance of military autocrats, and the current one under the watch of a civilian president whose mission or motto is transformation.

    The title of this essay is a partial borrowing from the title of Wole Soyinka’s book on the politics of evil that led to the Nigerian civil war. Granted that the events described in Soyinka’s book are more gory and scary than what Nigerians are expecting currently, there is no doubt that the state of normlessness that prevailed in Soyinka’s book, A Season of Anomy, is rearing its head again in our own time.

    During Nigeria’s first season of anomie in 1962, some individuals in the federal government and their cronies in the government of Western Nigeria were bent on removing politicians who they thought were not ready to play ball with them by joining the ruling party. In pursuance of this goal, some lawmakers in the Western House of Assembly in Ibadan were induced to play thugs inside the hallowed chamber. They broke the mace, threw chairs at other legislators to draw blood from their heads, etc. Alhaji Tafawa Balewa’s government quickly declared a state of emergency in Western Nigeria. Balewa’s reason was that he needed to prevent Nigeria from sliding into anarchy as a result of mounting political differences between Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief Ladoke Akintola. Balewa chose his friend, Dr. Moses Majekodunmi, to function in the place of the premier of the region. What started as a regional or state problem then festered until it became a nation-wide problem, which culminated in a political experiment that later brought Nigeria to decades of military autocracies, and the rest is history.

    The second season of anarchy came in 1966 after the first coup d’etat that removed the elected government of Alhaji Tafawa Balewa. During the first six months, Gen. Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi introduced the second unitary government in the country, after the one introduced by Lord Frederick Lugard. In July1966, another coup d’etat came to undo the rule of Ironsi, leaving in its wake a major crisis principally in the Northern Region. Igbo men, women, and children were killed in large numbers by angry northerners, to the extent that Lt-Col. Emeka Ojukwu called the killings genocide or pogrom. This led to the civil war, and the rest is history.

    In 1993, General Ibrahim Babangida fomented another crisis that was bound to lead to anomie, by annulling the freest and fairest election in Nigeria. General Sani Abacha came to flush out the interim head of state installed by Babangida to calm the Yoruba or Egba area that made it possible for Abiola to be a Nigerian citizen. The struggle for restoration of Abiola’s mandate by NADECO, NALICON, and other pro-democracy organisations in Nigeria and abroad created a situation of instability in the country. Abacha ruled with brutality and prepared to become a civilian president at the end of his tenure as military dictator. The tension pushed the country close to the edge, and the rest is history, part of which explained how the country came to having elected president, governors, and legislators in the saddle today.

    Nigeria is now at the entrance of another door to anomie. Five lawmakers were reported a few days ago to have imported thugs to the House of Assembly of Rivers State to collaborate with them on a thuggish project: terrorise and replace the duly elected speaker of the State’s House of Assembly. In the process, the five lawmakers (out of a total of 32) sacked the speaker of the assembly and replaced him with one of them. The newly selected speaker had started functioning before the arrival of majority of members of the assembly. A brawl ensued between lawmakers on the side of respect for the constitution and five legislators on the side of abuse of the constitution. The act of terrorism thrived in the state assembly in Port Harcourt, as if law and order had broken down in the city or in the country. There were no security officers to prevent the disorder that brought embarrassment to the state in particular and to the country in general.

    It is not clear at the time of writing this piece what the motives for the action of the five lawmakers who attempted to violate the constitution of the land were. As expected, the Inspector-General of Police had promised to investigate, in order to find out who broke the law and recommend what to do to such persons. It is not clear how long the investigation is to take, but the result of the probe promised by the IGP is worth waiting for, given the enormity of the violation that took place in the Garden City three days ago and given the disruption and instability that similar acts in the past had caused the country.

    Most patriotic citizens would not have expected that the country would come again to its present low in relation to the rule of law. Not after what it took many citizens to bring democracy back to the country. Not after the death of so many people in the process of wresting the country from military dictators and restoring democracy. Not after the gloomy prediction that Nigeria could disintegrate by 2015. Not after the life of the country had been endangered for about two years by Boko Haram. To be repeating what happened in Ibadan 50 years ago is tantamount to remaining on the same spot since 1962 in terms of political morality and progress. With such evidence of stagnation, why should anyone be surprised if foreigners predict doom for our country? Why should anyone be annoyed when outsiders say that Nigerians are not capable of sustaining democratic culture?

    There is a saying among the Yoruba: When one’s neighbour chooses to eat vermin, one must warn him or her about the bad consequences, not only for the sake of the eater of vermin, but also for the peace of the neighbour, as the coughing and sneezing would not allow the neighbour to sleep at night. Some of the lawmakers in the Rivers State House of Assembly are metaphorically eating a vermin and the consequences, if the act is not properly and quickly addressed in a legal and constitutional manner, be too serious for the entire country to deal with.

    Given the current state of Egypt just two years after the coming of civil rule and democracy in that country, Nigerians need to call their rulers to order. In particular, the President and the National Assembly need to act fast and right, to prevent the country from descending into another political abyss. Such intervention should be in addition to the investigation promised by the IGP. Such intervention is needed urgently, in order to prevent the rascality or banditry in the Rivers House of Assembly last Tuesday from ballooning into a national crisis, such as similar misbehaviour in Ibadan in 1962 did.

  •  Soyinka meets Ake’s cast, crew

    Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, last Friday in Lagos met with the top adult cast and crew for the feature film adaptation of his childhood memoir, Ake: the Years of Childhood being produced by a Lagos production house, Back Page Productions.

    The meeting was hilarious, thought-provoking as well as inspiring as Prof. Soyinka and the lead cast and crew exchanged views and pleasantries.

    In attendance were leading lights of the movie industry. They included Taiwo Ajai-Lycet, Akin Lewis, Tina Mba, Ben Tomoloju, Yinka Davies, Tony Umole, Yeni Kuti, Jimi Solanke, Jahman Anikulapo, Beautiful Nubia.

    Also, at the event were the film’s top crew that included the executive producer of the film, Dapo Adeniyi, the Director, Yemi Akintokun, Ayodele Ayobolu and Kemi Obadina, who are heads of Marketing and Communication at Back Page Productions.

    The film, Ake is set in the 1930s and 1940s and is poised to recreate that period through restored locations and period automobiles. One of the leading characters Mrs. Olufunmilayo Ransome Kuti is reputed to be the first woman in Nigeria to drive a car.

    Nigeria’s history is also at the fore in the Ake film, especially the Egba Women’s Riots of 1945 led by Soyinka’s aunt and mother of the late Afro-beat legend,  Fela Anikualpo-Kuti as well as Soyinka’s own mother, Eniola Soyinka.

    The riot climaxed with the famed deposition of the Alake of Egbaland, the abolition of the poll tax on Nigerian women and the institution of the universal adult suffrage.

    The film, which is starting production this month is expected to be shot over the next six months in Abeokuta, Ibadan with some select scenes in Lagos.

    They will be premiered in next year when two landmark events: the 100th Anniversary of the Nigerian amalgamation and the 80th birthday celebration of Prof. Soyinka.

  • Achebe wasn’t my enemy, says Soyinka

    Achebe wasn’t my enemy, says Soyinka

    Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka, yesterday dismissed the supposedly sour relationship between him and the late world acclaimed novelist, Professor Chinua Achebe, saying the talk of an unhealthy rivalry between them was cooked up.

     

    He blamed ‘camp followers’ for the misrepresentation of the issue between him and the late Achebe although he admitted that “it would be stupid to claim that relationship” between them “was all constantly harmonious.”

     

    Soyinka, in an interview with Sahara Reporters ahead of Achebe’s burial, later this week, also spoke on Achebe’s place in African literature, his controversial memoirs on the Nigerian Civil War, There was a country and alleged genocide during the war.

     

    On the relationship between him and Achebe, he said: “At this stage in our lives, the surviving have a duty to smash the mouths of liars to begin with, then move to explain to those who have genuinely misread, who have failed to place incidents in their true perspective, or who simply forget that life is sometimes strange – rich but strange, and inundated with flux.

     

    “My first comment is that outsiders to literary life should be more humble and modest. They should begin by accepting that they were strangers to the ferment of the earlier sixties and seventies. It would be stupid to claim that it was all constantly harmonious, but outsiders should at least learn some humility and learn to deal with facts. Where, in any corner of the globe, do you find perfect models of creative harmony, completely devoid of friction?

     

    “We all have our individual artistic temperaments as well as partisanships in creative directions. And we have strong opinions on the merits of the products of our occupation. But – “rivalry for domination,” to quote you – healthy or unhealthy? Now that is something that has been cooked up, ironically, by camp followers, the most recent of which is an ignoble character who was so desperate to prove the existence of such a thing that he even tried to rope JP’s wife into it, citing her as source for something I never uttered in my entire existence.”

     

    He dismissed those who speak of such as “empty, notoriety-hungry hangers-on and upstarts” who are in search of relevance. He said for him J.P. Clark, the late Achebe and other writers, “I believe we were all too busy and self-centred – that is, focused on our individual creative grooves – to think ‘dominance’!

     

    “Writers are human. I shudder to think how I must sometimes appear to others. JP (John Pepper Clark) remains as irrepressible, contumacious and irascible as he was during that creative ferment of the early sixties. Christopher was ebullient. Chinua mostly hid himself away in Lagos, intervening robustly in MBARI affairs with deceptive disinclination. Perception of Chinua, JP and I as ‘personal enemies’?

     

    “The word “enemy” is strong and wrong. The Civil War split up a close-knit literary coterie, of which “the quartet” formed a self-conscious core. That war engendered a number of misapprehensions. Choices were made, some regrettable, and even thus admitted by those who made them.”

     

    Reacting to widely held insinuations that the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature to him in 1986 led to a bitter chasm between the duo he said, “Well then, this prospect that “my 1986 Nobel Prize in literature poisoned my personal relationship with a supposedly resentful Achebe” – I think I shouldn’t dodge that either. Even if that was true – which I do not accept – it surely has dissipated over time.

     

    “Nigerians need to be purged of a certain kind of arrogance of expectations, of demand, of self-attribution, of a spurious sense and assertion of entitlement. It goes beyond art and literature. It covers all aspects of interaction with others. Wherever you witness a case of ‘It’s MINE, and no other’s’, ‘it’s OURS, not theirs’, at various levels of vicarious ownership, such aggressive voices, ninety percent of the time, are bound to be Nigerians. This is a syndrome I have had cause to confront defensively with hundreds of Africans and non-Africans. It is what plagues Nigeria at the moment – it’s MY/OUR turn to rule, and if I/WE cannot, we shall lay waste the terrain. Truth is, predictably, part of the collateral damage on that terrain.

     

    “Yes, these are the ones who, to co-opt your phrasing, “diminished (and still diminish) Chinua’s image”. In the main, they are, ironically, his assiduous – but basically opportunistic – hagiographers – especially of a clannish, cabalistic temperament. Chinua – we have to be frank here – also did not help matters. He did make one rather unfortunate statement that brought down the hornet’s nest on his head, something like: “The fact that Wole Soyinka was awarded the Nobel Prize does not make him the Asiwaju (Leader) of African literature”. I forget now what provoked that statement. Certainly it could not be traced to any such pretensions on my part. I only recollect that it was in the heat of some controversy – on a national issue, I think.”

     

    He, however, agreed that disagreement among writers and artists was nothing new. According to Soyinka, disagreements among, “musicians, scientists, even architects and scientific innovators etc. are notorious. They are usually short-lived – though some have been known to last a life-time. This particular episode was at least 20 years ago. Unfortunately some of Chinua’s cohorts decided that they had a mission to prosecute a matter regarding which they lacked any vestige of understanding or competence or indeed any real interest. It is, however, a life crutch for them and they cannot let go.”

     

    On Achebe and the Nobel controversy he called on those fanning the embers to end it now asking, “What they are doing now – and I urge them to end it shame-facedly – is to confine Chinua’s achievement space into a bunker over which hangs an unlit lamp labelled “Nobel”. Is this what the literary enterprise is about? Was it the Nobel that spurred a young writer, stung by Eurocentric portrayal of African reality, to put pen to paper and produce Things Fall Apart? This conduct is gross disservice to Chinua Achebe and disrespectful of the life-engrossing occupation known as literature. How did creative valuation descend to such banality? Do these people know what they’re doing – they are inscribing Chinua’s epitaph in the negative mode of thwarted expectations. I find that disgusting.

     

    “It is high time these illiterates were openly instructed that Achebe and Soyinka inhabit different literary planets, each in its own orbit. If you really seek to encounter – and dialogue with – Chinua Achebe in his rightful orbit, then move out of the Nigerian entrapment. Chinua is entitled to better than being escorted to his grave with that monotonous, hypocritical aria of deprivation’s lament, orchestrated by those who, as we say in my part of the world, “dye their mourning weeds a deeper indigo than those of the bereaved”. He deserves his peace. Me too! And right now, not posthumously.”

     

    On Achebe’s place in world literature and his description as father of African literature, Soyinka said: “Chinua’s place in the canon of world literature? Wherever the art of the story-teller is celebrated, definitely assured.

     

    “Chinua himself repudiated such a tag (father of African literature)- he did study literature after all, bagged a degree in the subject. So, it is a tag of either literary ignorance or “momentary exuberance” – ala [Nadine] Gordimer – to which we are all sometimes prone.”

     

    On There Was a Country, Achebe’s last work, Soyinka said it is a book he wished the deceased “had never written-that is, not in the way it was. There are statements in that work that I wish he had never made.”

     

    On allegations of genocide during the war against the Federal Government, Soyinka said: “The reading of most Igbo over what happened before the Civil War was indeed accurate – yes, there was only one word for it – genocide. Once the war began, however, atrocities were committed by both sides, and the records are clear on that. The Igbo got the worst of it, however. That fact is indisputable. The Asaba massacre is well documented, name by victim name, and General Gowon visited personally to apologise to the leaders. The Igbo must remember, however, that they were not militarily prepared for that war. I told Ojukwu this, point blank, when I visited Biafra. Sam Aluko also revealed that he did. A number of leaders outside Biafra warned the leadership of this plain fact. Bluff is no substitute for bullets.”

  • Soyinka tasks FG on Boko Haram

    Soyinka tasks FG on Boko Haram

    Literary Icon, Prof Wole, Soyinka has called on the Federal Government to go back to the very beginning of the Indoctrination of Boko-Haram sect members in schools if they intend to solve the sect’s insurgency.

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

    Prof. Soyinka said that Boko Haram is a local movement, adding that it is part of an international problem that needs to be checked.

    “Boko Haram members 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, “the Nobel Laureate said,

    He said a military response is not the only way out but one of the many approaches which are essential to finding a solution to the problem. “If we must solve the problem, we should go back to the basics where the malformation took place.

    “Nigeria is in a war situation and every Nigerian citizen should consider this. Boko Haram phenomenon should not be limited to the Northern region alone but something that affect the entire nation. This people have declared categorically that they will not be satisfied until Nigeria and Nigerians are Islamized,” he concluded.

     

  • Useful idiots (1)

    Useful idiots (1)

    An Ivy League education without ethics makes a trust fund ‘baby’ an expensive toy without batteries. Substandard education makes the middling youth even worse; it moulds him into a broken toy without appeal. They are both disposable but they enjoy patronage anyway – by the ones Wole Soyinka eloquently described as the wasted generation.

    The Nigerian youth is a breed with all the personality of a paper cup. Thus like paper cups, we are used and disposed by men and women unfit to be elders. Yet whatever callousness we are forced to endure, our elders are not to blame. They shall not be blamed, for we made ourselves unbidden offering on the altar of vultures.

    It is the malady of this age that the youth are too busy preaching that they have no time left to learn. In Nigeria, we are too busy dumbing down that we barely have time left to grow. It is a sad manifestation of stunted growth that we evolve into foetal adults and spend the rest of our lives seeking the comfort of debilitating “life boats.”

    It is even more disheartening to see us adopt as a favourite past time, the pillorying of our elders and the rapacious ruling class. Many a Nigerian youth love to prophesy the worst about our fatherland thus it is never surprising to hear the average Nigerian youth pronounce with emphatic pessimism and relish that “This country is doomed,” and “Nigeria is finished.”

    The Igbo youth laments his persistent marginalization from the scheme of things/bounties. He believes Nigeria is skewed to work against him and fellow Igbo because his peers from other ethnic groups are wary of his towering acumen, industry, courage and political savvy. The Hausa youth believes he has inalienable right to statutorily and heavenly accorded rights to reign supreme and lord it over his peers irrespective of merit. And the Yoruba youth, goaded by sentiments of his higher wisdom, towering depth in diplomacy, culture and politics believes that he is entitled to the best the country has to offer, on a platter of gold.

    Every youth desperately perpetuates his sense of victimhood and entitlement. The idea is to keep whining until he gets lucky and corners an immense portion of the proverbial national cake – with minimal exertion and at no cost.

    We used to be regarded as the promising youth, the gifted generation that would rescue Nigeria from the brink of irredeemable ruin. But that spell of hopefulness has dissipated now. Our “wasted” elders have seen through the swollen belly of our pride. They know we are increasingly handicapped by greed and lack of creed. By creed, I mean a coherent and specific set of goals, a consistent series of norms according to which society is to be remade.

    Since we have learnt to blame the ruling class for everything, what is it that we want from the ruling class? We don’t need their permission to make something of the world where they have failed but we still live our lives seeking their permission to evolve positively and mature.

    It takes courage and an enormous reserve of decency to evolve a humane ideology and establish it. We haven’t the courage and will, and this interferes with our ability to accomplish progressive change. More worrisome are our violent attempts to be radical; eventually they resonate too feebly as a kind of rudderless activism.

    We identify all that is wrong with our society but we are never specific about what must be done to correct them. It is relatively easy to join a picket line and tirelessly castigate our elders and ruling class for everything that is wrong with our lives but these actions, while they demonstrate frustration, in some instances even heroism, deal generally with symptoms of· our problems and not the solutions. All the picket lines in the world will not resolve ills of fraudulent and impatient youth, perverted values, greed, racism, disillusionment with study and substandard education.

    A broad wave of disillusionment and darkness persists above the silver linings we desperately wish to succeed our darksome clouds. Yet with precision and unfaltering devotion, we work ourselves up into such a state that we can only see the volcanic flare of our destructive acts as glitters of grandeur. We have perfected the art of standing on barrel-heads to spout and be seen, while we engage in pursuit and acquisition of mostly unearned wealth and greatness. Eventually, we luxuriate and spread out like a green forest with sour fruits and severed roots.

    Apparently, we suffer a throwback to the 70s – the era that launched a trend in which Nigerians became preoccupied with themselves more than the survival of the nation. Self preservation has become an inexorable obsession of many youths seeking to escape the slow, steady path with its craters of mishap and socio-economic vagaries. What Joshua Lubin identifies as the “Me” decade has indeed, recoiled inward rather than concern itself with crucial national issues, like national progress and ethical rebirth. Therefore, popular culture attracts dubious labels such as “narcissistic” and “decadent” from critics and the “wasted”older generation.

    The Nigerian youth has become so self-involved that almost every action and train of thought perpetuated by him serves as an instrumental resource to situate this generation in historical context, as perfect illustration of the much-hackneyed and over-exploited “Lost Generation.”

    Our inordinate quest for self-fulfillment further establishes us as the worst that could possibly happen to a heavily endowed nation like Nigeria.

    But we aren’t actually so bad. If we could look inwards to summon latent will and channel it towards the rejuvenation of outdated mores of morality and simple decencies, our lot might yet change, for better.

    It shouldn’t hurt to evolve faith and be steadfast in it. If we could discard our sentiments about the lifestyle of Tuface Idibia, we would find in the musician some worthy anecdote about the quality of faith. Tuface Idibia believed in his dream of stardom. And he relentlessly pursued it through the stark streets of Festac, the wilderness of hunger spasms and institutional adversities to become whoever he is and whatever he is today. If I had used Soyinka, or Late Babatunde Jose, many would claim they grew up when Nigeria neither smothered dreams nor murdered hope. Hence my choice of Idibia, the minion who managed to become a poster icon for generations of Nigeria’s music hopeful.

    Yet many would read this and consider it “Pollyannaish.” To this lot, any hearty lunge at hope or belief in a brighter tomorrow manifest as blind optimism and a pathetic attempt to be patriotic even while it’s absolutely idiotic to do so. They would love to see the nation ruin in order to justify their inordinate cynicism and yearnings about the pointlessness of the Nigerian dream. They continually affirm their ill will and prayers of doom for the nation by tirelessly projecting separation and insurmountable bleakness on the Nigerian state. Individually, their contribution towards nation building is virtually non-existent or abysmally low, they are amazingly adept at sowing seeds of doubt and disillusionment amongst their peer and younger generation. But they love to be seen as heroes of truth and the new world.

  • Okon sets a cat among the pigeons

    Only an event involving two of Nigeria’s most illustrious sons could have attracted the stellar crowd that graced the formal investiture of Wole Soyinka as the first recipient of the Awolowo Leadership Prize. It was perhaps the greatest collection of eminent Nigerians since the great philosopher-statesman dined alone. The commodious Harbours’ Hall filled to its full capacity.

    Unknown to a snooper disoriented by flu and long distance gallivanting, Okon had slipped his domestic mooring and dressed like a traditional Efik chieftain, the loony lad was right there in the crowd glad-handing and back-thumping like a politician of the First Republic. Snooper was aghast by this display of social delinquency by this impossible boy. But the make-belief racket was unsustainable and a brisk commotion soon engulfed the reception foyer.

    “Where is your card?” Okon was asked by one of the delectable hostesses.

    “Me, I no dey carry card. I come represent dem paramount ruler for dem Jamestown for Calabar. Abi you no sabi say na him safe Papa Awo from dem godogodo soldiers?” Okon retorted with a devilish sneer.

    “So have you registered?” he was asked again.

    “Me, I no be politician. So I no dey register nothing. Na dem Lai Mohammed dey do dat one for Abuja. Lai na my friend. Him nickname na Okunrin Raufu”, Okon sniggered. At this point, having realised the opportunity cost of detaining the scoundrel, he was waved on. But fate intervened and Okon was accosted by a lone television crewman.

    “Sir, how do you see the occasion?”, the earnest and intense looking chap asked a self-important Okon.

    “Me, I no be woman. Na woman dey use Ladies Occasional pill”, the mad boy intoned with a swaggering gait to the squirming embarrassment of his stranded interviewer. The affronted chap decided to seize the initiative.

    “What I mean is this: how do you see the prize given to Professor Soyinka today?”

    “Hen hen, na dat one you for say. As for dem prize, na dem Yoruba people dey deceive dem Nigerian people. I like dem Kongi man, but make him no dey follow follow dem yeye Yoruba people. Abi you wan tell me say dem no find Efik man to give dem prize? When dem wan lift heavy crane na Efik man, but when dem wan award prize na Yoruba man. Abi you think say we know sabi dem trick?”

    “Now that President Jonathan has reversed himself over UNILAG name change, are you happy?” the interviewer asked Okon with a deadpan expression.

    “Wetin concern agbero with dem knock engine? You see the problem with dem Jonathan be say na reverse him dey drive. Him dey reverse into everything and everybody. Everybody dey run from am like dem Gaiser for permanent reverse. He done reverse into dem Obasanjo and Baba dey cry for inside him bedroom. Na no break no jam vehicle or wetin dem Yoruba people dey call pakaleke Express. But katakata go burst when he come finally reverse into dem abandoned mala petrol tanker. Na dat one Baba Lekki dey call holocaust. Dem locust go dey scream ho, ho ,ho!!!!” Okon intoned with feverish excitement. At this point, even the interviewer became overwhelmed with apprehension. Casting furtive glances across the place, he quickly melted into the crowd with Okon in hot pursuit.

    “Yeye Kobokobo boy, you don finish the interview? You no even ask me about dem Patience woman”, a viciously jubilant Okon screamed at his heels.

  • When literature resolves conflict

    When literature resolves conflict

    · Niger immortalises Ekwensi with e-library

    It was a convergence of ideas when scholars, writers and literary gaints, such as Prof. Wole Soyinka, met at the Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu (MBA) National Literary Colloquium in Minna, the Niger State capital, to address the theme: Nigerian Literature, Conflict and National Unity. They sought ways of resolving burning national issues through intellectual rigour and also honoured one of their own, the late Cyprian Ekwensi. EVELYN OSAGIE reports.

    Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka has said the Constitution alone may not be able to resolve “our various areas of conflicts”.

    According to him, Nigeria would become truly united if people respected each other’s rights and religion, otherwise, a perfect Constitution may not be able to save the situation.

    He was presenting his keynote address on the theme: Nigerian Literature, Conflict and National Unity at the Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu (MBA) National Literary Colloquium in Minna, Niger State. The event was an intellectual exercise attended by notable writers, literary critics and scholars such as the Vice Chancellor, Nasarawa State University, Prof. Shamsudeen Amali; Mallam Abubakar Gimba; Prof. Charles Nnolim; Prof. Yusuf Adamu; former President, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Odia Ofeimun; the incumbent Prof. Remi Raji; ANA Abuja chair, Edwin Oriata; ANA Kaduna chair, Usho Adawa; former ANA Imo chair, Camilus Ukah; Dr. Salihu Bappa and Ahmed Maiwada.

    Aside brainstorming, they also celebrated one of their own as the Niger State government inaugurated an e-library in memory of the late writer, Cyprian Odiatu Ekwensi. The library, with free internet facilities housing over 20 computers in the main hall, would serve as a resource centre for students, scholars, writers and researchers, it was learnt.

    Ekwensi was a writer with the unity of the nation at heart, guests said. His works, they said, preached messages of unity and harmony among Nigerians. From Nkwelle Ezumaka, Anambra State, he was born in the hilly town of Minna in 1921. He schooled in the north, south west, Ghana and London; and grew to become a renowned writer who authored over 30 books before his death in 2007.

    The event, Soyinka said, brought back fond memories. According to him, he and the late Ekwensi used to go hunting in the state capital when he was alive. He urged young writers to take a cue from Ekwensi’s example on unity. “Ekwensi was a great hunter. His works cut across ethnic divides and promoted national unity. What we are celebrating today is an evocation that breaks petty dividing lines. His work was a revelation to many of us. He introduced this part of the world to many of us in the south,” he said.

    In the quest for conflict resolution, Soyinka said, writers’ mission, as in other aspect of national life, is simply to bear witness, and thus implicitly, proposed alternative national philosophies. He added that such philosophies can be inducted by future generation as a viable direction for social conduct and insight into existence itself, noting that beyond that, no one should look to the writer for salvation.

    “What is the most valuable gift that writers can bequeath to others? Or what does the writer value most? Is it the sense of excitement that comes from transforming reality?’ Soyinka asked.

    He said:“Ekwensi, who we have gathered for today with the opening of the library in his honour and one of the pioneers of what we consider modern Nigerian prose literature, also found himself compelled to confront that question. At that same critical phase of a nation’s turmoil, he decided that the answer laid in joining hands to form a new entity in which he and his own people could live securely. He took his place as the others such as Chinua Achebe during that period of national stress among the combatants for a new nation.

    “Today, however, many of us, just like the organisers of this event are asking the question that implicitly reverses the choice, writers like Christopher Okigbo, Flora Nwapa, Chukwuemeka Ike and others made in their own times and that question is how to ensure that those writers or any writer is never again confronted with such dilemma that they never again have to make the same agonising choices. The magic word sometimes appears to be “UNITY”. This nation is already united in so many things – for instance, corruption. Our elementary pre-occupation should be to protect words, language from devaluation, especially at the hands of those who constantly seek to propagate alibis for iniquitous social conduct and the pursuit of false values.”

    “When I started writing poetry at 17, the war had just started,” began activist poet Ofeimun on The role of Literature in securing the nation’s unity.

    While observing that literature has helped unite the nation, he recounted his Civil War experience, saying conflicts usually have a deep-rooted impact on lives, especially that of writers.

    He said: “Wole Soyinka was in jail, Achebe was helping to raise money for the Biafran Sun, Cyprian Ekwensi was fighting to defend the Sun and Okigbo had died. All those, whom we looked upon, were involved in the war so that I began my life as a poet in conflict. Those (writers) who can speak for us must never be allowed not to speak for us. Literature is about defending the memories of the people. The colonialists drew lines around the various groups and they forgot the stories they once told of themselves and forsaken part of Nigerian history: that, for instance, between the Yoruba and Igbo that they once had a common language.

    “Ekwensi was a writer that recognised that underneath the differences is the need to tell stories of how we relate and connect to one another. When we look at Nigeria, it is important to note how much we share similar traits/communalities. And literature has kept alive the dream of how we are similar. The power of our literature is its ability of being able to make sanity out of our nation. And for that we need to thank the Soyinkas, the Achebes, the Ekwensis and young writers who hold the key to our shared past and future,” he said.

    The move to celebrate the “holders of the nation’s shared past, present and future,” Niger State Governor Dr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu said inspired the literary colloquium which is in its second edition. In the same vein, aside being an indigene of the state by virtue of birth, he noted that Ekwensi was being honoured posthumously because his works propagated messages on unity. He called for national integration, saying: “anyone trying to work against national integration is wasting his time”. He donated N10 million grants to ANA, saying it is for the furtherance of literature in the country.

    Aliyu said: “Unless Nigerians respect those who teach and who write there will be no end to the corruption and ignorance. When we are talking about corruption, we must look consciously at the real cause. Corruption originate from the leadership. As leaders, we must lead by example. As stakeholders of Nigeria project, the colloquium is a platform to brainstorm on burning national issues. It is also inspired by our determination to make Niger the ‘literary capital of Nigeria’ and contribution to the development of literature.

    “We believe in the Nigerian project not only because we gave Nigeria its name, many who have given the Nigerian project their support, such as renowned writers like Abubakar Imam, Bello Kagara, Ojukwu, Mamman Vatsa, Ben Okri, Gimba originated from this state. We respect you because you are the light of the society. Writers are motivators. Join me to celebrate Ekwensi who not by choice was born in Minna but by choice made Minna his home.”

    Guests, including Ekwensi’s family led by George Ekwensi, praised the efforts of the Niger State government. He said: “Our father Ekwensi belonged to them as much as he did to us. The environment of Niger State helped form my father’s young mind. That was why he found it so easy to reflect the culture of the Northern part of Nigeria in several of his books: Passport of Mallam Ilia, Iska, Burning Grass, An African Night’s Entertainment, Gone to Mecca, and several others. He found the daily challenges confronting the common man intriguing and wove them into stories again and again.

    “I have no doubt that he is here with us in spirit. Minna was one of his favourite cities. It is my fervent hope that the commissioning of the library named after him by no less a personage that Africa’s first Nobel Prize winner, Soyinka would lead to revitalisation of the reading culture and inspire young men and women in the state and indeed in our dear country Nigeria to strive for excellence in the arts and the sciences and especially in the telling of the many stories that are still begging to be told.”

    His brother, Ike urged the eastern government to borrow a leaf from their Niger State counterpart. “It is about time we end this racism and embrace unity. There are many people in the east who are from the north and other parts of the country that deserves this kind of award. The governor of Niger State has shown that he is a true Nigerian. The family prays for him,” he said.

    On his part, Niger State Chief of Staff, Prof. Muhammed Kuta Yahaya, said: “The colloquium is meant to create a converging point where ideas would be consolidated and proffer solution on the national issues. Niger State model is inspired by educational ideologies such as that of the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo.”