The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Wole Soyinka

  • Soyinka to speak at Nigerian Cultural and Film Festival, Bordeaux

    AS part of its mission of upholding the image of Nigeria, Content Warehouse Limited, an audio-visual and cultural promotion organisation, is set for the maiden edition of Nigerian Cultural & Film Festival; an event projected to be one of the biggest showcases of Nigeria’s creative works in Bordeaux, a notable tourist city in France.

    Taking place from September 16 to 19, 2018, Nobel Literature Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka will be speaking at the event, which will have a delegation of Nigerian film industry stakeholders.

    According to Founder of the project, Mr. Ralph Nwadike, other delegates whose agencies are supporting the event include Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; Dr. Raymond Dokpesi, CEO of Africa Independent Television; Dr. Samantha Iwowo; Alhaji Adedayo Thomas, Executive Director of National Film and Video Censors Board; Otunba Segun Runsewe, D.G of The National Council for Arts and Culture; Dr. Chidia Maduekwe, M.D of Nigerian Film Corporation, and London-based Nigerian filmxmaker Biyi Bamidele Thomas.

    “The festival will be showcasing our arts and crafts, including our dance and drama. We will showcase our historical pictography and documentary,” says Nwadike.

    Disclosing that one of the highlights of the event will be an agreement signing between Nigeria and France on film related issues, Nwadike is optimistic that the event will put paid to some of the wrong impressions outsiders may have about Nigeria.

  • Ruin of law

    Let’s not get it wrong. President Muhammadu Buhari did not blindside us with the rule of law discharge. From many comments, including the sapient intervention from Professor Wole Soyinka, the president emerged as though plotting a stealth outburst of cannonades on human rights.

    We don’t have to look to see that we have been bleeding inside our bones. We don’t need to expect another blow. In the words of a character in Shakespeare’s play, King Lear, we can “see it feelingly.” If it happens later, it is not because we needed an ominous reassurance of the coming reign of terror. Buhari is not a stealth bomber. He is a B-2 Bomber, telegraphing the doom ahead of its evil hour. If you don’t see, it is because you are not looking, or you are not hearing.

    When he remarked that the national interest superseded the rule of law, he was speaking from an instinct. He was echoing what he was already doing and what he understood by the rule of law. He was not asking anyone to agree or disagree. He was not throwing the matter open for debate. He was just making what he saw as a routine affirmation of tested truth.

    It was a written speech. So, it was no accidental discharge. His intellectually vacant attorney general must have seen that cave man’s justice in a presidential speech of the 21st century, and he let it go.

    The tested truth Buhari learned when he was in the army. The Nigerian Army, rooted in the old hierarchy of colonial logic, saw the state as the first estate. The state made the laws, and the laws were subject to the state. He served in the army cut out of the Prussian era of the 19th century. It was an army with a state and not a state with an army. The army saw itself as the creator of the state, and the state then created the laws. How could the national interest of such a state be subject to the rule of law when the rule of law was the baby of a cabal in power?

    Nor is Buhari alone. Our political elite is not innocent. The APC at the moment is in the grips of a philosophical crisis as to whether to adopt direct or indirect primaries. Our elite find it difficult to form a consensus on what values should undergird our laws. So, how could they agree on a law or set of rules? Laws for our leaders are not essentially about values, but interests. In such a scenario, rule of law, or the law of rules, will matter only to the extent that they fondle their interests.

    Buhari comes from two traditions that make such a contempt for the rule of law feel like a force of nature. Apart from the army, it is the feudal background. In such cases, it is easy to understand that he sees the supremacy of what he calls national interest as preceding the law. It has always been so in this country, even under our so-called democratic presidents. John Adams described the America as a nation of laws and not of men. His world view is the opposite, just like most of our political elite.

    Obj did that when he was president. Jonathan did so when he was president. Buhari is doing so now. They define national interest in their own rights.  They privatised the definition of the interest, and go ahead and act with force. They don’t see it as impunity but the anguished majesty of the law.

    In the case of Sambo Dasuki, whatever he has done wrong, is perceived as against the nation’s interest. If the law courts are disobeyed, it is because the law is foolish, and they who made the law are wiser.  If El Zak Zaki remains under lock and key, it is because John Locke’s concept of law and liberty make no sense except in the English or European provenance where the philosopher conceived it.

    We need to free our democracy for democracy’s sake. We have not understood the power of law over individuals, even if that individual is the president. That is what is still malignant in this democracy. The strong man edges out the small man because he contains the law. The law was made for the big man and not the big man for the law.

    History has recorded cases where the law was abandoned in democracies. One of such was during the Second World War in the United States. Under President Franklin Roosevelt, Japanese Americans were swept into camps because the United States was at war with Japan. But the Japanese were citizens like any other Caucasian. But Roosevelt saw it differently. The nation was largely quiet. It was a gross violation of individual liberty and the sovereignty of human rights. Today, the Caucasians conveniently lament that episode. The second was during the American Civil War, and Abraham Lincoln suspended the habeas corpus. Habeas corpus is a writ that requires a person who has been arrested to be brought before the court. Lincoln saw this as a luxury in war just as the fear in Roosevelt prompted him to intern the Japanese Americans.

    The difference between what Buhari is doing and what Lincoln did was that Honest Abe sought Congressional approval. Roosevelt invoked his executive order, and put over 110,000 persons in concentration camps.

    It shows that democracy is very fragile and one man can amass coercive powers and it could seem legitimate. In the 1960’s, historian Arthur M. Schlesinger called it “the imperial presidency,” but it dates back to the age of President Andrew Jackson, the role model of Trump in his fever of xenophobia and white supremacy.  Such powers are in vogue these days from Donald trump in the United States to Duterte in the Philippines. It is nothing new today, but it has taken over the psyche of desperate masses in what Yale professor David Runciman describes as “zombie electorate” in his new book, How Democracy Ends. Law is in danger of the mob today because a popular leader can suspend a law and the people will follow.

    This undearmines the purpose of the rule of law. On the surface, the argument is that the law belongs to the people, and if the majority agree with the suspension of a law or a roguish update of its meaning, then actions taken by the new interpretation are legal. Especially if you get judges to back you up. Clever dictators don’t undermine the law, they remake them. That is what is dangerous. From the preventive detention act of the first republic and in several African countries in the 1960’s to decree two. When Buhari said, “the press? I will tamper with it,” he found a law to justify it. Rule of law is great, but whose rule of law before we ruin it?

    Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, even apartheid had what you may call popular governments, and their laws, however savage, trumped all common-sense approaches. That is why some political philosophers have called for what is termed epistocracy, which is system based on knowledge. But who determines when the electorate is wise or foolish? John Stuart Mill believed in this, but modern democracies are not fuelled by logic but sentiment. Is it a death knell for democracy, or it is just a puff that will pass away? It is good to fight for the rule of law, but let us know the law first. As Thoreau said, “the law never made anyone a whit more just,”

    Our own democracy is looking more like a “dumbocracy” than an epistocracy, and in that sense we are no different from what is prevailing in the world. Poverty is playing a big role in this, and our politicians are exploiting this cynical feast.

     

     

    Lalong vs Dalung

    The names sound almost the same. They have two phonemes.  One starts with an L and the other with a D. In the second part of the name, they sound the same, except that one is spelt with an O and the other with a U. They hail from Plateau State, and they are both politicians. Both are as far apart as their names are close. The first is Simon Lalong, Plateau State Governor. The other is Solomon Dalung, sports minister.

    But it is Dalung that is long on foolishness. It beats me why Buhari has not fired this disgrace in the Federal Executive Council. This is the man who has disgraced Nigerian football, disdained the rule of law, flouted the codes of international soccer and FIFA and thrown soccer in chaos. As if that is not enough, he has the shameless boldness to speak on violence in Plateau, stoking the blame on his not-namesake.

    Quite a few days before the rise of violence, the state warned that some people were trying to revive violence for political reasons, and we saw the series of killings afterwards. What is Dalung doing in the centre stoking the flames in his own state by throwing rhetorical flames at Gov. Lalong? The violence ought to be handled by the Federal Government of which he is a part, and if politics is in the heart of it, he should be part of the solution. Shame indeed.

     

  • Here comes Wole Soyinka Museum

    A befitting edifice called Wole Soyinka Museum has been opened at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife, Osun State by the University authorities, as a mark of tributes to the world renown writer whose former home on campus is now a museum. Edozie Udeze who took a tour of the museum, reports.

    The apogee of the just-concluded OAU Ife Festival held at Ile-Ife was the opening of the Wole Soyinka Museum.  The museum was opened inside the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ife, Osun State, as a symbol of respect, honour and recognition for Professor Wole Soyinka, the first African Nobel Laureate in Literature.  To make the show more elaborate and pointed, the former residential building of Soyinka when he was a lecturer at OAU was promptly transformed into that purpose.

    The house located besides the official residence of the Vice-Chancellor, the museum is essentially a place where most of the important local and traditional art materials so dear to Soyinka are now housed.  A tour of the place showed that some of the objects are artifacts that have been part of Soyinka in one way or the other.  Soyinka’s identity with the house is incontrovertible.  At a point, the faunas and trees surrounding the building were trimmed and tampered with without the express permission of Soyinka.  He then walked out on the campus.  He never looked back ever since, describing those behind those alterations as wasted generation.  His grouse was that he loved the bushy vegetation as it were and therefore those trimmings conflicted with his natural attachment to his lovely home.

    But the question now is: were those natural surroundings restored before the building was declared a museum?  Was Soyinka really satisfied with what he saw?  Before now, the house was one of the official guest houses on campus.  It was a place past Vice-Chancellors used to quarter their guests.  But the lure to revisit the home and give it its proper due came when the idea of the OAU Ife Festival was also revisited by the current VC, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede and his team.  If a big gun, Africa’s greatest literary egghead passed through this place, is it not proper to reconsider his former home as a museum?  That was the thinking of the committee that was set up to oversee the festival.  But other concepts of it remain to be appreciated, like why would the original colour of the house be changed from beige to white?  Was there any need to do more alterations in addition to the barrenness of the surroundings?  For those who are quite familiar with the historic building, it was not in order seeing it not regaining its original aura and beauty before the opening ceremony was done.  Those, however, should be restored forthwith to make the museum more comprehensive.

    Ogunbodede in declaring the museum open, said, “the idea to convert the former abode of Professor Wole Soyinka during his sojourn in this university into an academic and tourist monument is thus in line with the values of this university.  This idea was first muted by me when I sought the permission of the Emeritus Professor of Dramatic Arts to embark on this project.  Earlier this year, the permission was finally given to commence the strategic revamping of the Wole Soyinka building right opposite the Vice-Chancellor’s lodge”.

    Nonetheless, the interior is amazing, suffused with avalanche of everything Soyinka, in terms of his love for artifacts, books, and traditions.  The history of Soyinka’s attachment to nature is not farfetched.  The background to the museum is therefore steeped and fused in time.  This can easily be traced to his deep voyage through his Yoruba ancestry and heritage.  He spent about 24 years at OAU; those vibrant years of life and vitality, when he taught Dramatic Arts.  It was there too, that he had his first daughters Peyi and Moremi.  He had time also to rummage through, collecting historical relics, artifacts and articles, some of which have today constituted part of the museum.

    There are some artifacts traceable to hunters.  Soyinka was and is still a hunter.  Inside the museum some of those wonderful implements used by hunters are visibly seen.  These are sharp objects made into various types and modes to depict a warrior, a professional hunter who took his time to acquire those relics and symbols.  In fact while on campus he was the patron of the Hunter’s Guild at OAU as well as a member of the Kegites Club.  In his book you Must Set Forth At Dawn, one of his most outlandish literary offerings, Soyinka documented his hunting expedition and exploits.

    Considering all these, it became imperative to endorse a rich home with repertoire of monuments and relics to embellish the museum.  The university management went on ahead to include some other important artworks like sculptures, carved images and figurines to enrich the collections.  Some of the words on the marble by the writer are embossed on the walls or placed in strategic locations for emphasize.  Also in place are some of the figures of old Ife history.  Some are traced back to thousands of years into time.  But they equally symbolize the place of Soyinka as a writer, lover of history and traditions.

    Soyinka himself said he began to collect artworks due to the robbery of the past centuries.  He said: “Out of resentiment for centuries of robbery, I began to collect (artworks) in deference protection to the real collectors”.  Given this, some of those works adorn the hall and thus make it glorious to see the symbolism of an ideal museum done in an academic setting.

    The carved works represent different periods of history.  There are carved heads of maidens, of leaders, of palaces, of traditional festivals and celebrations; all in tune with an iconoclastic assemblage of huge representation.  In front of the house is the bust of Soyinka himself seated symbolically at the entrance of the building.  There is a platform for it, which makes it conspicuous and more engrossing.  Seated there, it commands attention; it shows a personality with abundance of aura and respect.  It adds glamour to the house, to the idea of an academic museum in the mold of a Nobel Laureate who has conquered the world with his numerous literary works that cut across all genres of literature, all areas of creativity and all.

    There are archival pictures of Soyinka from his early life, mostly at the tender age when he began his life as an activist-writer.  The pictures show him as a handsome young man who was eager to conquer the world through his creative prowess and the knack for what is right.  This is why it is said that “a close look at Wole Soyinka’s life will reveal the Nigeria in which Soyinka lived so dangerously and to understand his complicated relationship with the personalities who ruled it”.

    This statement of fact demonstrated the social life of the artist who began early to stand for justice.  A one-wing duplex with a few rooms to compliment its oriental taste, the museum also houses other antiquities of academic importance to the Nobel Laureate.  While people gathered for the OAU Ife Festival, some dignitaries from far and near took time out to tour the museum.  Although it is assumed that more objects of historical importance will still find their way into the hall, it is necessary to commend the idea of the museum.  It shows that gradually our leaders are beginning to show concern for iconic leaders and creative personalities who have done marvelously well to reshape the society.

    One of the most remarkable quotes in the museum concerning the person of Soyinka reads: “You can leave your heart with Wole and travel to Hong Kong, when you come back it would still be beating”.  And so would the museum be for all time to come.

  • Wole Soyinka Centre holds lecture on conflict reporting

    Amidst increasing violence and conflicts in parts of country, former Minister of External Affairs, Professor Ibrahim Gambari will on July 13 lead conversations on the issues and media coverage at the 10th Wole Soyinka Media Lecture Series.

    The theme of the Lecture according to a statement by Coordinator of the Wole Soyinka Centre for is “Sheathing the drawn daggers: Conversations on investigative reporting and accountability in times of conflict.”

    Gambari will be joined for the discourse by, Joe Abah, Nigeria Country Director, DAI Global; Eugenia Abu, Brand and Multimedia Strategy Expert, Columnist and former Executive Director of Programmes, Nigeria Television Authority (NTA); Umaru Pate, Pioneer Dean, Faculty of Communication, Bayero University, Kano; Mnguember Vicky Sylvester, Professor of Literature and Gender Studies, University of Abuja; and Juliet ‘Kego Ume-Onyido, Co-Founder of Whole WoMan Network.

    The discussants would address the media’s narration of multifarious conflict issues in the country, including the recurrent crisis relating to communities, farmers and herdsmen, Boko Haram, Niger-Delta militancy and the Biafra secession agitations.

    The organisers said the discussion has become urgent to contribute to demands for accountability from the government to secure the lives and properties of the people and stop the violence while maintaining the highest ethics of the media.

    Held first in 2008, the Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture Series is an annual event of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ).

    The Centre organises the lecture to raise debate on critical issues affecting Nigeria. It has since 2009 held on 13 July, to commemorate the birthday of Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in Literature and Grand Patron of the WSCIJ, Professor Wole Soyinka.

  • Our own WS @ 84

    Books and all forms of writing have always been objects of terror to those who seek to suppress the truth. – Wole Soyinka

    What is it that you want to write about Wole Soyinka that is not already well storied? Or what do you want to say about him that he has not already written about in his impressive title lists of books that have been published to critical acclaim around the world?

    Like most children of my age, my first introduction to his works was in secondary school. We had heard so much about his legendary literary prowess and the way he writes that you would always need a dictionary by your side to understand his works. So, when in final year in the secondary school, his play which has come to define him and has come to look like his second name was a required reading in literature class, we got a better look into his world. I am talking of Kongi’s Harvest. Every day I remember that translation of the Yoruba proverb that we all knew and used to say. It was in this play that we first encountered the translation in English as ‘The pot that will eat fat, its bottom must be scorched’.

    It was an eye opener. A translation that went a long way to open our young eyes to the power of words and their translations. As little children then we began to work on translating some of the Yoruba proverbs that were the oil that our parents ate words with (apologies to Chinua Achebe) into English. Whether we did a good job of it we may never know because we later became absorbed in other childhood fantasies. We kept lots of scrap books of translated proverbs.

    It is humbling that the picture of Soyinka that I had in my head as a kid still persists today. The more one tries to understand him the more complex he becomes. A man who at eighty-four still writes with a commanding presence and has not showed any sign of slowing down must truly be a legend; the one who comes once in many generations.

    There is no facet of anything artistic that the man many have come to refer to as ‘Our own WS’ has not touched. Music? Remember his grand effort and collaboration with the ever folksy Tunji Oyelana in “I love my country I no go lie’!

    In films, he has acted in some and a few of his plays have been turned into films. He straddled all through the genres of literature – poetry, drama, novel, nonfiction. In fact, the question is not what has he written but what has he not written?

    His public intervention in political affairs can never be ignored. In fact, if he issues a statement on any political issue it is usually a testament so much so that no event has been commented upon if WS has not! Even at his age, he has come to define what public discourse is about or should be. A few years ago I gave myself the self-imposed task of reading all over again all his books. I am yet to complete this task and more are still being added to the body of works.

    In 1986 when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature, I remember the argument that was thrown up among us students and many student talk shops that we organised to celebrate the feat, the first Nobel for the continent.

    As our own WS clocks 84 on July 13, what better way to pay him a tribute than to quote the Nobel Committee whose citation says of him (Soyinka): “who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence”.

    The drama of our existence as Nigerians, human beings and all are captured in his rich literary corpus. Happy birthday.

  • Obasanjo unfit to lead movement for change of leadership, says Soyinka

    Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has said ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo is not the right person to lead any movement for reform on change of leadership in the country in 2019.
    He said Obasanjo has crossed the red line and his Coalition for Nigerian Movement (CNM) should not be glorified.
    He said the ex-President and other geriatric leaders of his generation should step aside and allow a new generation to lead the nation.
    Soyinka made his views known at a Conversation Night which was part of the 67th World Congress of the International Press Institute(IPI) in Abuja.
    He said he would unveil a pamphlet on his position on Obasanjo and his movement on July 3 at the Freedom Park in Lagos.
    Responding to a question that he has not been critical of Obasanjo as he has been of other past leaders, especially late General Sani Abacha, Soyinka  said ” As for Obasanjo, I have news for him. And it has been a progressive thing.”
    “You see me and Obasanjo fist to cuffs today and the following morning, you might see us embracing each other.
    Circumstances are always important and even when he was in power,  if you could remember,  there were numerous times when I had to criticize him…
    “I believe Obasanjo has really crossed the red line because he is trying to put himself as the head of a recovery process. He is trying to hijack the recovery process in this nation and I say that he is one of the least worthy of one of the former heads of States to lead that kind of movement.
    ” I  have brought out a publication about that, the title is in Latin but it means; who watches the watchmen.
    “That publication is coming out simply because I will like to see new blood in governance in this nation and I think these corrupt and hypocritical geriatrics should stop recycling themselves and they should stop trying to co-opt their former cronies to take over the reigns of governance in this nation.
    “I invite you on July 3rd to Freedom Park in Lagos when a little pamphlet would be published in which finally, we confront Obasanjo with events of the past which incidentally are not being newly articulated.
    “This nation forgets very very fast … Obasanjo is one the greatest hypocritical leader this nation has ever produced.”
    On his persistent criticisms of the late Head of State, General  Abacha, Soyinka said: “I have nothing personal against Abacha. We had only met a couple of times.”
    But he said he could not be praising Abacha who allegedly misruled the nation and ran a corrupt government.
    He said he could not be walking on the street and see monuments in Abacha honour when the looted funds traced to him were still being traced and recovered all over the world.
    “If I walk into a street and I see a structure raised in honour of a torturer, a murderer so recognised by the  entire world that we are still chasing after his loot, I have a responsibility to  tell this President that you cannot be serious corruption if you leave monuments in honour of that leader of misrule. So, I have nothing personal against Abacha.”

  • Wole Soyinka, Pat Utomi, others honour Prof. Ademola Abass at 50

    The 2nd edition of an International Law book titled Complete International Law, Text, Cases and Material has been unveiled in commemoration of the 50th birthday of Professor Ademola Abass, at Sky Lounge Bar of Eko Hotel, Lagos, at the weekend.

    An exquisite gathering, there was no boring moment at the book presentation, as guests were treated to the best, not losing sight of the celebrant’s golden age. With Comedian Senator, a master of ceremony that cracked guests up; musical interlude with Nigerian soulful singer, Jodie and so much to eat and drink, the event soared.

    The launch of the book was helmed by the Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka who congratulated the celebrant, endorsing the book as the most essential for all International Law students.

    Soyinka who was Special Guest at the event urged the Federal Government to place serious emphasis on education and security in the country.

    For the celebrant, it was more than just celebrating 50, “It’s about impacting Nigerian students,” he said.

    “Today is focused on what I’m trying to use my birthday to celebrate, which is to make one of my books available to Nigerian students. I had my International Law book published in the UK which unfortunately, Nigerian students had no access to but I was ready to take it back to Nigeria and publish here, so I’m here today to present the book.

    “Actually my birthday was 24th of April, but I was away from the country. I just thought I could bring a few friends together and have some fun,” he said.

    Prof. Abass further pressed on how to make the book affordable and acceptable to all students, saying that books published in the UK are a bit expensive: “My worry is that what will be the value I am adding to Nigerian students, especially of International Law. So, I thought the book should be published by a Nigerian publisher. It’s an essential book for all international law students to have.”

    He finally persuaded Law students not to only focus in the practicing of law in court, but they should also write, teach and research Law.

    The event was graced by other distinguished personalities like Prof. Pat Utomi and Vice-Chancellor of the Lagos State University, Prof. Olanrewaju Fagbohun and others.

    Professor Ademola Abass was educated at the University of Lagos, Nottingham and Cambridge, where he obtained a PhD in International Law.

    Currently serving as the Special Adviser to the Governor of Lagos State on Overseas Affairs and Investment, Prof Abass previously taught law in various British universities, and was Professor of International Law and Organization.

    His recent works include Protecting Human Security in Africa (Oxford University Press, 2010); Complete International Law, Text, Cases and Materials (Oxford University Press, 2012, 2014); Regional Protection of Asylum Seekers: An International Legal Perspective (with Francesca Ippolito) (Ashgate, 2013).

  • Soyinka to Nigerian Youths: Don’t follow those who failed you

    Scores of people including academics, religious leaders and traditional rulers and others on Thursday converged at Ilara-Mokin, Ondo state where Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka delivered the 2nd Convocation lecture of Elizade University, Ilara-mokin entitled “Tending the tree of commencement”.

    At the crowded make-shift fully decorated hall, the literary icon urged the youths  to be more dedicated and remain active in politics.

    Soyinka charged the youth to have representatives in power during the next political dispensation.

    This according to him was by participating actively election process and to represent themselves in governance.

    The eminent Scholar lamented that old politicians ruling the country presently have failed the country in all ramifications.

    He hailed Leah Shuiab, one of the female secondary school students kidnapped in Dapchi, Yobe State for her firmness like Nelson and Winnie Mandela who chose to remain in prison despite the offer by the government of South Africa.

    Soyinka said “All I can just tell you is this; don’t make the mistake of following those who failed you before; those who are pretending that they have nothing to do with the disaster that has overtaken Nigeria.

    “They are very quick to smell failure, they are very quick to shout it; but then, they exculpate themselves, whereas they are the founding malfeasance of the Nigerian condition: that is what I am warning youths against. Mobilize, get your representatives and stop bothering geriatrics like myself. ”

    He expressed displeasure on the scrapping of history in  secondary schools in the country, stressing that the development aided many people  to forget their historical backgrounds.

    Chairman of the occasion who is the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof. Ayo Banjo, said there was a need for the country to pay attention to the training of teachers.

    According to him, teachers should be well paid to encourage them for better service delivery.

    He said” If you want education to be improved in Nigeria, there should be more funding, more money to provide conducive environment. More money for training of teachers.

    For instance, you cannot be in the army without having frequent training. Army do not joke with training. Every three or four years, they go for update of their training.

    Prof Banjo urged Elizade University students to use Soyinka’s lecture for intellectual development.

  • Soyinka, Falana to Nigerians: Beware of Obasanjo

    Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka and activist-lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) on Sunday warned Nigerians to be wary of a coalition formed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, purportedly to rescue Nigeria.

    They said Nigeria was in danger when politicians like Obasanjo, who “supervised the sacking of democratic governments” in Oyo and Anambra states, pretend to be the messiah.

    Obasanjo formed the Coalition for Nigeria Movement on January 24, 2018, which he said was meant to salvage the nation.

    He asked President Muhammadu Buhari not to contest next year’s election as he had “failed.”

    Soyinka and Falana, who described but didn’t name Obasanjo, spoke in Lagos at the 80th post-humous birthday of the late human rights lawyer Gani Fawehinmi (SAN).

    The event was the themed ‘Democracy for the masses through proper and effective governance.

    It also featured former Kaduna State Governor, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, Senator Shehu Sani, Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, Afenifere chieftain, Senator Femi Okurounmu, among others.

    Soyinka said: “All I want to say in connection with the title of today is just one word: vigilance….There is no question whatsoever that democracy is in danger.

    “And so I find it ironic, that those who’ve proved themselves the enemies of democracy who’ve really taken, they’ve really committed acts, not just negligence, but actually inaugurated certain policies which contributed to our being at this point again are once again coming out and positioning themselves as saviours, as messiahs, as the sole possible rescue mission that this nation can even dream of, a nation of nearly 200 million people.

    “I find it very strange, and I find it even stranger because at the beginning of this movement towards ‘Rescue Mission’, there were one or two organisations that came out under different names and they had people in them whom I considered worth following, worth encouraging, worth encouraging others to study closely and even consider following.

    “The next thing I knew, these movements were being hijacked by the very people who laid the foundation, an ironic word by the way, for the collapse of the democratic edifice.”

    Soyinka said he turned one of the groups down when it approached him.

    He said: “The next thing we know, they are forming coalitions and I was invited by one of the rescue missions to address them and I telephoned them and I asked the question, ‘wait a minute, which one are you? Are you the original people I saw or is there a faction or is there now a fatherly umbrella under which everybody is moving?’

    “And I told them; don’t even come near me, if you’ve signed up on one of those who are the enemies of democracy in this nation.

    “Those who inaugurated so-called constitutional amendment programmes, total charades, to assist them to continue to run, which has been scuttled by the direction known as tenure elongation, third term, etcetera for which the entire national treasury was almost bankrupted. And suddenly, here they are they are forming coalitions all over the place, once again, confusing people.

    “Who are the genuine leaders, who are those that we can trust?  The answer to that is very simple: look at their track record. That’s all.

    He advised Nigerians not to allow themselves “to plunge into a zone of amnesia, in which you conveniently forget unpleasant realities.

    “We’ve had presidents in this nation, some of whom inaugurated a never-ending democratic process, which landed us eventually under the most brutal dictators that this nation has ever known.

    “We had others also who actually supervised sacking of ‘democratic government’; I’m speaking of Anambra, I’m speaking of Oyo State. A governor was kidnapped under their watch with their complicity; in another instance, thugs actually entered the House of Assembly, sacked the legislators and installed their own candidates; under the same watch.

    “And they call themselves the God-designated watchman over the fortunes of this nation? And suddenly, here they are and I see Nigerians flocking to them and asking them once again to lead.

    “Mind you, they’ve said very clearly if it becomes a political party count me out o, but paths are already being beaten to their doors, control by subrogation.

    “Even if they do not individually put themselves back in the position of power, they are already smoothening the way for their surrogates, their stooges, so that they can continue to misrule from their cosy farmsteads. So, all I’m urging is: be very vigilant. Just look closely at their records, look at the company they keep.

    He urged the youth to “grow up” and take political power.

    “Why can’t a new generation actually rise, throw us all out of the window and take control of their own lives by themselves? Why do we keep recycling the same jaded, traitors, enemies of the people? Why do you need to go for blessing somewhere if you’ve made up your mind that it is time to take control of your own existence?

    “Once again, I don’t want to be misunderstood, I know what I think about this government when voting time comes, I know exactly where I’m going to cast my vote but I’m not going to allow anybody to hoodwink me and say I will show you the path. No, this will be adding insult to injury.”

    According to Falana, the government would confiscate some of Obasanjo’s assets, including a university, “at the right time.”

    Falana said: “Our country is undergoing serious crises of governance but we must be very careful so that we do not allow those who destroyed the country, those who ruined the nation to pose as the saviour of our people.

    Read Also: 2019: Obasanjo under fire for anti-Buhari campaign

    “There’s somebody living very close to this place who has been parading himself as the saviour of our people; this guy ruled the country for 11 and a half years cumulatively – three and a half years under the military, eight years under a civilian dispensation. And even wanted to do a third term but Nigerians rejected him.

    “The guy is going round the country now, claiming to have solutions to our problems; I wish to say here and we are challenging him to name one thing that he did, any problem of the country that he solved.

    “On the contrary, this guy wasted $16billion to generate darkness for the country. This guy formed and took over the resources of the country blindly under what he called blind trust.

    “Nigeria is the only country in the world where a sitting President and a sitting Vice-President established private universities when the government refused to fund public universities and other tertiary institutions. But let me tell,

    “Gani went to court to challenge the extortion of state governments and contractors by a man who realised about N7billion to set up a so-called library.

    “Under the constitution, any gift received while you are in office, other than customary gifts, is forfeitable to the state; therefore, at the right time, this country, when it is properly organised will take over all those universities and libraries that were set up with public funds and that may be sooner than you think.”

    Kaduna State Senator, Sani, said Nigeria is not yet in a true democracy.

    He said: “In fact, our country is sick, the republic is sick; our people are dying, violence, bloodshed, killings, mass murder is becoming the emblem of our democracy today.

    “We are out of PDP misrule but we will be deceiving ourselves to say we are in the Promise Land; we are not in the Promise Land. We must keep vigil,

    “The political ruling elite are not yet prepared to see to a democratic Nigeria. Nigeria’s political reality is about personal interest.

    “Those who destroyed our country in the past are very much present as born against.”

    He urged Nigerians of integrity to support Buhari because “You can’t build a country because of the integrity of one person. The integrity of one person is not enough to rule and sustain a state. We have a President who is a man of integrity but integrity is not enough for leadership.”

    Sowore lamented that Nigerians rejected Gani for Obasanjo in 1999.

    He said: “I want to say very briefly that Nigeria must be regretting that when they had a chance to choose between Chief Gani Fawehinmi and a Barabbas, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, they decided to choose Obasanjo instead of choosing Gani Fawehinmi and that is why we are regretting today.

  • Nigeria faces major food crisis if …….. – Soyinka warns

    Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka on Friday expressed grave concern over the continued displacement of the nation’s farming population in various parts of the country by rampaging violent herdsmen.

    Soyinka warned that if nothing is done urgently to stem the tide of killings and sacking of farmers by herdsmen, the dark cloud of violence could plunge the country into a major food crisis.

    The Playwright and author of Kongi harvest, who spoke in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, during a conference session on African Drum Festival, said a period like the on – going drum festival, demands a moment of sober reflection on the onslaught by herdsmen against the primary producers of food in the country.

    Soyinka who is the Consultant for this year’s African Drum festival,  however, added that the appalling situation should not be allowed to completely dampen the spirit of creativity.

    He called for the immediate restoration of displaced farmers to their traditional base, as a first step towards ensuring that this country is good habitation for people .

    The Chief host, Governor Ibikunle Amosun in his address observed that the intellectual angle to the festival is an innovation powered by the Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka thanking him for the putting the event together.

    Some of the participants include Dr. Sylvanus Kwashie Kuwor from Ghana, Laolu Akintobi , Mufu Onifade, Chief Muraina Oyelami, Professor Jeleel Ojuade, Dr. Tunde Adegbola, Bukola Bello Jaiyesimi, Solomon Terkura Adaa,  and some of the interventionists include , Wanle Akinboboye, Brenda Uphopo, Akin Adejuwon, Olu Adewale Adeniran among others .