Nobel
Laureate, Professor Soyinka: A National Icon, A National Treasure And An
Institution, By Paul
I. Adujie Professor
Akinwale Oluwole Soyinka is an international citizen of Nigerian
descent. He has had a remarkable career in writing, all types of
writings. He is an enduring and endearing public figure of international
noteworthiness; He is at once an unassuming and gracious man, with high
intellect and incredible influence on Nigerians and others; Professor
Soyinka is a national treasure and a national icon, and forever young. Even
when others disagree with him, it is a certainty, that such
disagreements, and those doing the disagreeing, do not and have never,
questioned the Nobel Laureate's selflessness and patriotism; From the
pre-civil war years, to the present day Nigeria, Professor Soyinka, has
remained engaged and committed to everything that is good for Nigeria,
Nigeria's unity in diversity and oneness, Nigeria's development,
advancement and progress. Professor
Soyinka's influence on my aspirations to become involved in public
policy debates/discourse, arose from my reading enjoyment of his famous
writings, as a Public Intellectual, I am talking here about, one of his
famous works, "The Man Died" The man died, for me, is a
gun-blazing metaphor for common good, or general good. The man dies in
any of us, who would look the other way, when there is injustice.... the
man dies in any of us when we are quiet, complicit or become willingly
ignorant of the suffering of others… and as a notable Nigerian writer
put it recently, in an article at Kwenu.com, Nigerians, indeed all
humans would do better to see coffins as the sad end of a life and
instead of seeing “coffin, as just a mere piece of wood, being ferried
across town” And
so it is, then, the the man
dies in all of us, when we think of the coffins, arriving for the
journey's for our neighbor, symbolizing the terminal state of all lives,
as just a piece of wood from across town... coffins are the harbingers
of the ends of what could have been, coffins are not just another piece
of wood from across the neighborhood, coffins of the dead in Darfur
Sudan are not mere pieces of woods in other lands, it symbolizes the
sufferings of our African brethrens and the man dies in any of us,
lacking the courage to speak the truth to the powers that be. Nobel
Laureate and Professor of theater and dramatic arts, literary arts,
languages and restless activist septuagenarian Kongi, has taught us,
never to retire from the fight for public good. Professor
Soyinka is not famous for the number of houses and cars or girlfriends,
he is not famous for earthly material possessions, he is famous instead,
for his selflessness, for his intellectual dexterity and for remaining a
rebel with a cause, even after all these years! He
has tussled for with the worst of dictators and tyrants that were at one
time or another at the Nigerian political stage and Professor Soyinka is
still standing! Nigerians will do well to emulate the selflessness of a
Soyinka, instead of aping the mindless millionaires that we now have in
Nigeria, those overnight millionaires transmuted by their friends in
governments of greed and avarice, those millionaires who are not
millionaires based on any productive activities or venture. Those
overnight millionaires who have never produced anything! We
should all aspire to leave our society with the output from our towering
intellectual power, even at life’s dust, Professor Soyinka has
emblazoned indelible imprints in the minds of Nigerians and other
citizens of the world, he has stamped the sands of time with his
footprints with his life’s work and that is surely better than
anything money can buy, Nigerians will do well, to live like a Soyinka,
instead of aspiring to live lives like the “money-miss-road(s) greedy
and corrupt persons. Professor
Soyinka like Shakespeare, George Elliot, Mark Twain etc will be
remembered for generations and generations, not for how many millions he
had in Nigerian or Swiss Bank accounts, but for his intellectual power
and output and for putting such intellectual capacity that he posses,
into use for the good of all. We
hope Nigeria becomes a better place for all, by the time Kongi turns 80! Professor
Soyinka is at once an embodiment of selflessness and an epitome of
intellectual sturdiness both of which he has for decades, used
fearlessly for the service of our nation, this, to me, is what the Kongi
means, he is a Public Intellectual par excellence. I cannot believe he
is just seventy years old! I feel as though, I have read him for a
hundred years! Many more
years Prof! The man dies, in any Nigerian, who neglects to do his national duty, or carry out his obligations and responsibilities, whether as a private citizen or public office holder; All Nigerians must engage in acts, that will turn Nigeria into the country where all Nigerians are equal, united and prosperous, in our wonderful diversities |