President Tinubu renames National Theatre as Wole Soyinka Centre for Arts and Culture, reveals honour in birthday tribute.
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PROFESSOR WOLE SOYINKA AT 90: TRIBUTE TO A NATIONAL TREASURE AND GLOBAL ICON
I am pleased to join admirers around the world in celebrating the 90th birthday of Nigeria's iconic son and the world-renowned Professor Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde, famously known as Wole Soyinka.
Tomorrow the 13th July will be the climax of the series of local and international activities held in his honour. To underscore the global relevance of the literary giant, a symposium, along with poetry reading was held in Rabat Morocco on 9 July. The event was organized by the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco and the Pan African Writers Association (PAWA).
Professor Soyinka, the first African to win the Nobel Literature Prize in 1986, deserves all the accolades as he marks the milestone of 90 years on earth. Having beaten prostate cancer, this milestone is a fitting testament to his ruggedness as a person and the significance of his work.
It is also fitting we celebrate this national treasure while he is still with us.
I am, accordingly, delighted to announce the decision of the Federal Government to rename the National Theatre in Iganmu, Surulere, as the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and the Creative Arts.
We do not only celebrate Soyinka’s remarkable literary achievements but also his unwavering dedication to the values of human dignity and justice.
When he turned 80, I struggled to find words to encapsulate his achievements because they were simply too vast. Since then, he has added to his corpus with his series of Interventions, which have been published in many volumes.
Professor Soyinka is a colossus, a true Renaissance person blessed with innumerable talents. He is a playwright, actor, poet, human rights and political activist, composer, and singer.
He is a giant, bestriding not just the literary world but our nation, Africa, and the world.
He remains the shining light of our nation, the gadfly that pokes our national soul, decrying tyranny and oppression, urging us to become better as a nation.
He is one Nigerian whose influence transcends the Nigerian space and who inspires people around the world. Since his youth, he has been a vocal critic of oppression and injustice wherever it exists, from apartheid in South Africa to racism in the United States. Soyinka always speaks truth to power.
Beginning in his 20s, he took personal risks for the sake of our nation. His courage was evident when he attempted to broker peace at the start of the civil war in 1967. Detained for two years for his bravery, he narrated his experience in his prison memoir, "The Man Died."
Despite deprivation and solitary confinement, his resolve to speak truth to power and fight for the marginalized was further strengthened. His early writing, such as 'The Lion and the Jewel,’ ’Death and the King's Horseman', not only testified to his mastery of language, his innovative storytelling, but also his unflinching commitment to enthroning a fair and just society.
Our paths crossed during our just struggle for the enthronement of democracy in Nigeria following the annulment of June 12, 1993 presidential election. When faced with a trial in absentia and death sentence by the military regime at home, he galvanized opposition in exile through NALICON and NADECO. His global stature made him the face of our struggle to validate June 12 and restore democracy in Nigeria.
Today, I join the world to celebrate his profound influence on generations of writers, scholars, and activists who have been inspired by his work. I celebrate him for giving us the spark to fight and confront military dictators in our country. I celebrate him for his enduring spirit and for teaching us that literature and drama can be used as a powerful tool to challenge the status quo.
I wish Professor Soyinka an incredibly happy 90th birthday.
May he continue in good health to find creative fulfilment in the next decade leading up to his centennial.
May he continue to inspire us all to build a nation where people are free from oppression and our teeming youths can live up to their dreams without being a wasted generation.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria July 12, 2024
naptu2: This is a collaboration between two living legends. One is a world famous writer and academic, while the other is an extremely gifted singer, comedian and actor.
The writer wrote and the singer sang (although you can hear the writer's voice on the record).
Note: Ethical Revolution was Shehu Shagari's programme, but his government was very corrupt.
Unfortunately the record skips a few times (the problem of vinyl).
naptu2: Listen to that song from the 8:41 minute mark if you really want to hear Wole Soyinka's voice.
naptu2: I wonder if I should call Uncle Tunji Oyelana to mark the end of the day for us.
naptu2: I mentioned Tunji Oyelana earlier, so I need to clarify.
NO
There's no "I Love My Country" or "Sura Di Tailor" in the list.
naptu2: I have got to admit that I would not have remembered the lyrics of this version of this song if the Internet did not exist. It has been overshadowed in my mind by a slightly slower version with slightly different lyrics that was used as the theme song of the early 1980s sitcom, Sura Di Tailor (Tunji Oyelana also starred in the sitcom).
This song is on the B side of Unlimited Liability Company (Share-Di-Garri, i.e. Shagari).
Lyrics by Professor Wole Soyinka, sung by Tunji Oyelana:
Tunji Oyelana And The Benders - I Love My Country.
naptu2: I've posted this many times before, but I'm going to post it again, because I think I'll need it very soon.
The question is, is there anything that this man could not do? He is a great actor, a fantastic comedian and just listen to the music in the video I posted yesterday. Is there anything that he could not do?
This particular song was like a second Nigerian anthem. This is the original version. It's not the version that was used in the sitcom or the version that was used by government.
The Gbaju e crooner has now been handsomely rewarded for his silence and for not speaking up against the worst regime in the history of this country.
This is someone who spoke against one of the best regimes in the history of this country, the Goodluck Jonathan government. He even went as far as describing the then president, Goodluck Jonathan, to be worse than Nebuchadnezzar.
Well-deserved. Soyinka is a Nigerian national treasure to all Nigerians, across ethnicity and religion, bar those who are brattish and hateful towards all who say What they do not want to hear.
naptu2: Obafemi Johnson was the brother of Mobolaji Johnson (who was governor of Lagos).
naptu2: There was something that Victor Banjo was doing that neither Ojukwu nor Ademoyega knew about. Wole Soyinka wrote about it in his book.
Soyinka travelled to Biafra to see Ojukwu, Chinua Achebe, Christopher Okigbo and Victor Banjo in order to find a way to stop the killings. His meeting with Banjo was very interesting.
Banjo said that he did not believe in Biafra and he also wanted to stop the Northern Oligarchy that installed Gowon as head of state. He spoke of a third force that would unite Nigeria, overthrow the Northern Oligarchs and end the war. (In fact, in Why We Struck, Adewale Ademoyega said that Banjo told him that he had initially sent messages to Gowon that he wanted to return to Nigeria, but that Gowon replied that he could only return to a prison/detention in Nigeria).
He wanted Wole Soyinka to help him take messages to leaders of the West.
He gave Soyinka messages to give to several leaders, including Chief Obafemi Awolowo, but the most interesting message and the message that produced the most drama was the message that he gave Wole Soyinka to give to the GOC at Ibadan, Colonel Olusegun Obasanjo.
Soyinka had never met Obasanjo before, but he had a lot of contacts in virtually every agency in Nigeria, so he tapped his contacts and tried to arrange a meeting with Obasanjo. Most of his contacts told him that he should not meet Obasanjo because Obasanjo was selfish and could not be trusted, but Soyinka continued to try to arrange a meeting and one of his contacts in military intelligence eventually gave him a secret number with which he could call Obasanjo.
Many years later, Obasanjo told Soyinka that he did not know that the phone existed. It was a phone that was hidden in Obasanjo’s official residence. Obasanjo said that he kept hearing a strange ringing sound and he traced the source of the sound to a wardrobe in one of the guest rooms. He opened the wardrobe and discovered that there was a phone in it (remember that there were no mobile phones in Nigeria at that time, so this was a landline). He picked up the receiver and it was Soyinka on the other side of the line. They arranged a meeting that was to hold late at night on a deserted expressway.
Soyinka and Obasanjo agreed to attend the meeting alone and unarmed. However, Soyinka’s best friend, the insurance magnate Obafemi Babington Johnson (OBJ) insistited that he must follow Soyinka to the meeting. He argued that many people had said that Obasanjo could not be trusted and he also argued that it was not safe to attend such a meeting at night alone. Soyinka eventually agreed that Obafemi Johnson could follow him in another car, park in some distance away and watch the rendezvous point until he felt certain that Soyinka was safe.
Soyinka got to the rendezvous point, a petrol station on a deserted highway, in the middle of the night and Olusegun Obasanjo arrived a few minutes later in his Volkswagen Beetle. Soyinka got into Obasanjo’s car and they drove off. Apparently Obasanjo came with some escorts because a pair of headlights followed them. Seeing a car following Obasanjo’s Beetle, Obafemi Babington Johnson also followed the Beetle. So there were two cars following them. Then Obasanjo sped up, drove a little dangerously and lost both cars that were following them. He eventually parked somewhere on the expressway and Soyinka delivered the message.
Victor Banjo wanted free passage through the West on his way to Lagos. He didn’t want Obasanjo’s troops to challenge him. Obasanjo replied that, as an army officer, he could not give Victor Banjo free passage through his area of command. He said that his loyalty was to Lagos and to whoever was in charge in Lagos. He said that there are other ways that Victor Banjo could get to Lagos if he wanted, for example, he could go through Okiti Pupa and over water, but he would not give Victor Banjo free passage through his area of responsibility.
Obasanjo drove back to the rendezvous point and dropped Soyinka there.
However, Victor Banjo continued to call people in the West after that encounter between Soyinka and Obasanjo. He increasingly became more aggressive and angry during his phone conversations and he was calling even more leaders in the West. Wole Soyinka became alarmed because Victor Banjo had clearly thrown caution to the wind. Banjo had a sister at the University College Hospital and Soyinka advised this sister to stop taking Banjo’s calls for her own safety. It was most likely that Police Special Branch was monitoring these calls.
I suspect that it was these calls and Obasanjo’s report to his superiors that led to Soyinka’s detention by the Gowon Regime. Many years later, Wole Soyinka confronted Obasanjo about his report to his superiors. Apparently, Obasanjo had told his superiors that Soyinka tried to convince him to give Victor Banjo easy passage through the West. He reportedly implied that Soyinka also tried to bribe him to allow Banjo easy passage through the West. Soyinka said that his role in the whole affair was that of a messenger. He did not express any opinion on Banjo’s message, he did not try to convince Obasanjo, he simply delivered the message to Obasanjo and that was that. He certainly did not try to induce Obasanjo to accept Banjo’s request. According to Soyinka, Obasanjo admitted, at that party many years later, that Soyinka did not try to convince him to accept Banjo’s request.
Soyinka, at that party many years later, also forced Obasanjo to admit that he was armed during their meeting at the petrol station. Obasanjo said of course he was armed. He said that no soldier worth his salt would attend such a meeting unarmed.
See Wole Soyinka's book, "You Must Set Forth At Dawn" for more details.
Interview with Wole Soyinka after he was released from prison.
naptu2: Something I wrote last year. Posted it on the legends thread.
In October 1965, he was arrested and charged with holding up a radio station at gunpoint and replacing the tape of a speech by the premier of Western Nigeria, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, with a different one accusing the premier of election malpractice.
“It all proceeded according to plan. The duty officers responded as any sensible person would under the gun, removed the premier’s tape and replaced it with mine. It ran long enough for the message to the government to be clearly transmitted – drop your stolen mandate, leave town and take your reprobates with you etc. etc. Then a disbelieving senior operator in another control room roused himself from his paralysis, rushed into the studio and cut off the transmission. By that time I had slipped away. My retreat was unhindered”.
Wole Soyinka was declared wanted for stealing the tape of the premier’s speech. He went into hiding, first in Ibadan and later in the Eastern Region. The government of the Eastern Region and the Eastern Region police were sympathetic to his cause. The Federal Police found out that he was in the East and guessed that he would be at Professor Sam Aluko’s house, so they sent a signal to the Eastern Region police to search for him there. The following ensued.
“They arrived as promised, armed with copies of the WANTED notice that was now home to my photograph. A charade ensued. Sam accompanied them as they looked through the rooms, one after the other, passed through the living room where I was seated, looked right through me as through a windowpane. Content with the futility of their mission, they sat down with the Aluko family in the same living room. With a straight face, they enquired of Sam Aluko if he had any news of me. Sam shook his head in the negative. Well, be sure to keep us informed if he makes contact – we’ll leave this WANTED notice with you in case you lay eyes on anyone resembling him – again looking straight through me as I sat sipping my coffee”.
From, "You Must Set Forth At Dawn".
In 1967 Wole Soyinka journeyed to Biafra to meet with Odumegwu Ojukwu, Chinua Achebe, etc. in order to find a solution to the brewing crisis that was to later lead to the civil war. He also met Colonel Victor Banjo, who told him that he did not believe in Biafra, but rather, intended to lead a third force (The Liberation Army of Nigeria) to invade Lagos and overthrow Yakubu Gowon. Victor Banjo asked Soyinka to help him deliver a message to Obafemi Awolowo, Olusegun Obasanjo (General Officer Commanding the troops in the West) and other Western leaders.
Soyinka, with the help of an officer in military intelligence, called Obasanjo. Obasanjo said he had to search for the source of the mysterious ringing that he eventually traced to a phone in a wardrobe in his bedroom. They agreed on a rendezvous and also agreed to attend the meeting alone and unarmed. However, they both arrived at the rendezvous with “lookouts” and escorts. Obasanjo later admitted that he was also armed at the time. They succeeded in losing their lookouts and escorts and Soyinka delivered Banjo’s message. Banjo wanted Obasanjo to stand aside and grant him free passage through the West on his journey to unseat Gowon in Lagos. Obasanjo, in reply, refused to grant free passage to Banjo, stating that he had sworn an oath of loyalty to Lagos and so he was loyal to whoever was in command in Lagos. He suggested that Banjo could get to Lagos through other means, for instance, over water via Okitipupa.
Soyinka was declared wanted by the government (he was even branded a Biafran spy), arrested and detained for two years and four months (he spent a year and ten months of that time in solitary confinement).
And to think the whole of last month was used by Obidients to denigrate Soyinka. According to them, Chunia Achebe is better than Soyinka in terms of literature, despite the later wining Nobel Prize for Literature.
In order to make Achebe seem above Soyinka, they claim Achebe is known as the Father of African Literature. The clowns don't know that literature is bigger than Achebe who only did novels, which h is a segment of literature.
Literature encompasses novel, drama, prose, fable, fiction, non-fiction, biography etc. Where are Achebe 's works on those departments other than novel? Sadly, the Soyinka that has works in those departments doesn't want to be called Father of African Literature.
More pains for bitter Obidients a movie about Soyinka will premiere in cinemas on his birthday and also a documentary about him to air at Muson Centre in Lagos.
Bobloco: The Gbaju e crooner has now been handsomely rewarded for his silence and for not speaking up against the worst regime in the history of this country.
This is someone who spoke against one of the best regimes in the history of this country, the Goodluck Jonathan government. He even went as far as describing the then president, Goodluck Jonathan, to be worst than Nebuchadnezzar.
There's only one Gbajue and that's Bitter Obi. WS protested for Biafra, was jailed, he protested for your grandparents, your parents. Still, you want him to protest for you while your own father cuddle your mother in bed. Have some shame, kid.
