By Segun Ayobolu
The guitars have been humming, sirens screaming, drums beating and horns screeching most fittingly as three of Nigeria‘s most accomplished icons of intellect, professionalism, nationalism, and integrity celebrated their birthdays this month. Unhappy is the country, it is often said that it has no heroes. Sadly, too many of our potential heroes have been the victims of our destructive adversarial politics, fierce ethnic contestations, combustible religious intolerance or envious pull-him-or-her down syndrome.
No less tragic is the pervasive moral putrefaction symbolized particularly by the industrial scale corruption that has hobbled Nigeria’s potentials and ensured that some of the most venerated parsonages in our land are those who have amassed wealth through the most dubious and outrightly criminal means. They are the most frequent recipients of all kinds of chieftaincy titles, traditional honors, national bestowals, spiritual recognition by religious bodies and even honorary academic degrees.
Against the background of this devastating ethical wasteland that contemporary Nigeria has become, it is refreshing and gratifying that three of our most eminent citizens – Professor Wole Soyinka, Chief Olusegun Osoba and Professor Olatunji Dare – have been justly celebrated and serenaded as they marked their respective landmark birthdays this month. Although each has reached advanced ages in their continuing life odysseys, they have kept aloft their untainted banners of moral rectitude, uncompromising fidelity to principle, and unwavering commitment to truth and Justice in the best interest of Nigeria. Their lives represent shining lights on the hill showing us the path to tread and the fabled salt preservative that helps prevent societal decay.
Africa’s first literature Nobelist, Professor Wole Soyinka, clocked 90 on July 13 and the joyful ululations within and beyond Nigeria drowned out the juvenile rantings of social media rodents trying their frenetic best to diminish a towering intellectual and moral giant whose shoe sandals they are unfit to tie. That our own WS has lived up to 90 is indeed a marvel, a miracle to put it in religious phraseology, given the immense risks he has put himself in for the sake of Nigeria. Soyinka’s life trajectory has been intimately and intricately interwoven with the ups and downs of Nigeria’s history. His political instincts, sensitivity, and consciousness were honed when, as a child, he observed his mother and other Egba women leaders organize and successfully rebel against both traditional and colonial authoritarianism.
It is certainly no accident that his play, ‘A Dance of the Forests’ was one of the major cultural activities staged to commemorate Nigeria’s independence in 1960. Right through the turbulence of the First Republic, particularly ‘Operation Wetie’ that rocked the Western Region following the massively rigged elections of 1965, the military coups and counter-coups, the descent to civil war, the various military dictatorships, the corrupt civilian administrations, the unjust annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, the vicious Sani Abacha dictatorship and much more, Soyinka’s voice has been irrepressible speaking out and fighting for Justice. Details of his several interventions including his long incarceration by the Yakubu Gowon regime, his forced exile under Abacha, etc have been documented in his several classic memoirs and recounted in various analyses this week to mark his joining the elite nonagenarian club. They need not detain us here.
“I love my country I no go lie
Na inside am I go live and die
I know my country I no go lie
Na im and me go yap till I die”
That was the chorus to one of the songs in Soyinka’s ‘Unlimited Liability Company’, the musical album he produced to protest the gross malfeasance and venality of the political class particularly the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the Second Republic. His is no doubt an engrossing love affair with the land of his birth; an affection that motivates his regular drawing on his immense verbal and mental arsenal to flagellate its erring leaders who continue to under-develop an otherwise abundantly endowed country.
There are in my view two broad themes that constitute the core of Soyinka’s political thought in his novels, drama, poetry, memoirs, and essays. The first is his fascination with power, its uses and abuses. One of the dictatorial characters in his drama, ‘A Play of Giants’, Gunema, for instance, muses, “I inhabit, I think, the nebulous geography of power. That is why, always, I am searching to taste it. You understand, really taste it on my tongue. To seize it a la boca, roll and roll it in the mouth and let it trickle inwards like an infusion. Once, only once, I think I succeed”.
And secondly, is his preoccupation with justice which he describes as ‘the first condition of humanity’ ‘The man dies in all’ he immortally intoned in his prison memoir ‘who keeps silent in the face of tyranny’. That we enjoy 25 years of unbroken democracy today since 1999, despite its persistent faults and failings, is largely a result of the struggles and sacrifices of the likes of our beloved Kongi. Those who expect the politically astute WS to respond and relate to governments in a democratic dispensation the way he did under military dictatorships are entitled to their mischief. Kongi towers above them all. Beyond Nigeria, Soyinka is a global citizen who has continuously staked his life for the causes of justice, equity, and truth across contemporary time and space.
To commemorate his 85th birthday, eminent journalist, former governor of Ogun State, pro-democracy activist, and respected statesman, Chief Olusegun Osoba, launched a new book titled ‘My Life in the Public Eye’. This is a follow-up to his engrossing life narrative titled ‘Battlelines: Adventures in Journalism and Politics’ published in 2018. Aremo Osoba is unquestionably one of the most enterprising and accomplished reporters ever in the annals of Nigerian journalism. It is thus not surprising that in his earlier book, he wrote, “Reporting is my life. For me, to be called a reporter is the greatest accolade. Reporting is the soul of journalism. To report is to be the eyes and ears, the nose and voice of a news organization. It is to bear witness. Newspapering has been good to me. It has offered me a passport and a visa to see the world”.
But then Aremo Osoba also brought his administrative and managerial Midas touch as well as his urbane bearing and dignified carriage to bear on newspaper administration. During his tenures at the leadership helm of the Herald in Kwara State, the Sketch in Oyo State, and the Daily Times conglomerate at various times, these newspapers flourished professionally and commercially and enjoyed high respectability. Given these accomplishments, it was not surprising that Aremo was an outstanding governor of Ogun State who left indelible imprints in the developmental history of the state. There is no doubt that current governors across the country have so much to learn from Aremo Osoba’s style as governor.
Apart from frugality, prudence, and transparency in the utilization of public resources, Chief Osoba did not indulge in the construction of money-guzzling prestige projects such as flyovers of dubious utilitarian value in the state capital or major towns. In ‘Battlelines’, he submitted thus, “We ensured we had value for money through a well-defined Tender, Contract Award, and the Monitoring process. All pre-registered contractors working with us had track records of successive project execution. I did not leave behind any abandoned or uncompleted projects. We ensured that contractors were mobilized to the site by paying between 50% and 70% of the approved contract sum to avoid delays and renegotiation of contract by contractors”.
He continued, “In the execution of rural development projects – mostly rural roads, electrification, and water projects- we used direct labour and procurement of materials from manufacturers and approved distributors. The prudence in this procedure can be seen in the case of Ijebu North East Local Government where the permanent Secretary, rural development, Engineer Wale Bajomo, led his team to extend electricity to 17 towns spanning about 20km apart with five British-made transformers for a total cost of about N80m”. I certainly look forward to obtaining, reading, and learning from Aremo Osoba’s latest literary offering.
On Wednesday, 17 July, members of the media and academic community held a symposium in Lagos to mark the 80th birthday of renowned journalism teacher, media administrator, iconic columnist, inimitable satirist, and public intellectual, Professor Olatunji Dare. Modest and self-effacing despite his towering accomplishments, Professor Dare’s simple and unassuming exterior even when he has so much to be loud and showy about masks a steely inner resolve in his fierce commitment to principles he holds dear. Once asked why he had turned down offers of appointments to render public service on a number of occasions, the prof’s simple response was that there could be no better way to offer public service than contributing to public discourse through his columns.
In a collection of essays to commemorate Professor Dare’s 70th birthday, Professor Wale Adebanwi, had written with characteristic incisive brilliance, “Three passions, simple, but strong, can be said, in Russellian phrasing, to have driven Olatunji Dare’s public life: the pursuit of Justice and equity, a passion for liberty and democracy, and a craving for tolerance, temperance and excellence”. Renowned poet and literary scholar, Professor Niyi Osundare, submitted in his contribution to that volume that “In Olatunji Dare’s writing we encounter a productive marriage of the gravitas of content and the felicity of style.”
It was a great honor for me to contribute a chapter to the volume and conclude that “One of the longest-running columnists in Nigeria spanning a period of over four decades, Dare’s writing is unique for the fluidity of his prose, the lucidity of his thought, the broadness of his mind, the elegance of his language and his fairness and objectivity even when expressing the most vigorous views. Above all, he stands out as an icon of integrity and incorruptibility in a media terrain that is all too often immersed in the corruption and decay of the larger society. Nothing demonstrated this better than the consistency and vigour with which he utilized his professional skills to oppose the annulment by the military of the June 12, 1993, presidential election and the readiness with which he resigned his prestigious job at The Guardian in defense of principle at immense personal cost”.
In an essay written in 1996 at the height of the brutal military dictatorship in Nigeria, Professor Dare opined, “As I see it, the press can play no better role at this time than to speak truth to power – to tell those who are forever seeking to build new worlds that life is not a preparation for a living but it is to be lived as fully as possible, from one moment to the next; to point out that when thought is rendered socially hazardous, people spend more time worrying about the hazards than they do in cultivating their thoughts, that in such a state of affairs, society is the loser”. Those words ring no less true today.
This column wishes all three distinguished senior citizens happy and fulfilled birthdays as well as good health and divine grace for continued service to humanity in the years ahead.
BBC
