Naming a highway after Professor Wole Soyinka, By Uche Akunebu

“Nothing that Nigeria offers Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe will be too much .He deserves the country’s gratefulness as well as its state offices “

Alhaji sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Drum July 1960.

In validating and elogising the man with an olympian height, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe the first ceremonial president of Nigeria, the oratorical prime minister  ,Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, was quoted to have made the above statement . Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was a man of great

intellectual accomplishments, and a political star that illuminated not just Nigeria but Africa in pre-colonial era,which attracted the sobriquet to his name “Zik of Africa “. He was one that the politician with the flowery language, the late Dr Kingsley Ozumba, popularly known as K O Mbadiwe would call “a man of Cartapillar and bulldozer “

The writer could also amend the immortal words of the late golden voice of Africa , Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, to say “nothing that Nigeria offers professor Wole Soyinka will be too much” in view of the honour that came his way ,with president Ahmed Bola Tinubu, naming the Arterial Road N20 from Northern Parkway to outer Northern Expressway ,after the Nobel laureate. The government relied on the “international acclaim ” brought to the nation by the erudite professor.  For anybody that appreciates excellence, the honour stands endorsed.

As a person ,this writer remembers giving the one we call Kongi in the literary circle all his flowers when he won the Nobel prize in literature in 1986,breaking record as the first African to do so. When in 2002 the Italian government recognised professor Wole Soyinka,and bestowed him with the Vita di poeta prize ,this writer wrote an article on the Announcer Newspaper, titled “The Italian award on Wole Soyinka “published in 2002. At the award ceremony, the architect of petroiska and Glassnot in the former Sovient Union, Mikhael Gorbachev was on hand to read the citation on the great literary Icon.

This writer as one that plays strong on all the genres of literature, belongs to a good number of literary groups, that operates WhatsApp groups, and in one of them before the honour of government came to the Nobel laureate, someone did a post that the Nobel laureate, should be honoured by the federal government as he believed he has not been honoured enough.  On that particular post , some members of the group raised eyebrow on the suggestion for more honour and recognitions for the grand master of letters . They had their grouses .

One of the misgivings of members on that WhatsApp group, is the romance of professor Wole Soyinka with president Tinubu government, when he has in the past been known to be critic of governments.  There is no government that professor Wole Soyinka had not thrown under the bus with his criticism.

As his criticisms of past governments ,it would be recalled that he was a thorn on the military regime of General Yakubu Gowon. He even wrote a book the “The man died”, a veil reference to the regime of General Yakubu Gowon.  He was later detained for his vitriolics .

He came for General Mohammed Buharis military regime  ,ditto for General Ibrahim Babaginda, and General Sani Abacha. His trenchant criticism of General Sani Abachas regime  led to his going on self -exile. From exile he was a strong voice of NADECO, a group that insisted on the revalidation of the June 12 mandate Nigeria gave to the late business mogul,chief MKO Abiola.

Under president Good luck Ebere Jonathan, Professor Wole Soyinka was firing on all four cylinders ,as he called the president and even his wife names that suggested his indignation with that government. He was one of the recognisable faces that was seen in the “occupy Nigeria ” group that protested the increase in pump price of fuel under president Jonathan ,on the streets of Lagos in 2012 .

On visiting president Tinubu at the presidential villa some time ago, he was asked to appraise the present government and he promised to do so after the government has clocked one year ,but one year has passed without a word from him. This is not going down well with some people in many platforms, who have always known him to speak when it

matters most . Electricity tarrifs have been removed, fuel subsidy, and the aborted cybersecurity tarrif,and yet our outspoken literary giant had not said anything. A good number of people are enraged by the taciturnity of the Nobel laureate.

Professor Wole Soyinka recent comment on Peter Obi ,the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the last General elections, where he described Peter Obi as being “unfit for the presidential seat” and asking him not to offer himself for election in 2027 ,also have not sat well on the minds of Obi fans known as “Obidients” who came it in numbers to reply him with equal bile in their statements. The grouse of people here ,is that his politics is becoming toxic  .

Reading comments from the social media since the announcement of the honour was made ,the writer came across one that suggests that the honour from the government, is to make it practically impossible for the outspoken human right activist and literary Collossus not to throw the president Tinubu’s government under the bus with his criticisms  . Someone even said that it was to pat the Nobel laureate on the back for coming after Peter Obi ,and littering his political path with banana peels .

There are people who believe that with the biting hunger and spiraling inflation on the land that the respectable voice of professor Wole Soyinka is needed to advise the present administration on what to be done.  The belief stems from the fact that he is not used to keeping quite on the face of oppression.  He was the person who once opined that “that the man dies in him who keeps silent on the face tyranny ” . With the tyranny of tarrifs, poverty and high cost of living under the present administration, his silence has been deafening.

Labour was on strike a few days ago ,protesting for a minimum wage that will look like a living wage and not the starvation wage in place, not a whimper from the respected statesman that is known within the human rights community.  The public today knows where Senator Shehu Sani ,a human right activist and writer stands on the issue of minimum wage and other issues since the government of president Bola Tinubu took off.

Omoyele Sowore ,a human right activist equally had registered his presence in the struggle of labour for better pay ,with his insistence that slave wage is jettisoned.

Femi Falana (SAN) a human right activist known for his trenchant criticisms of policies that are anti -people, also have made his position known on the minimum wage that has been ranging. The list keeps burgeoning,but the respected literary legend is yet to lend his respectable voice to all the burning issues that have affected the masses .

For those of us that hold the literary Icon to high esteem and who believes that he is infallible, unlike those that think he is without flaws ,the time has come for him to stand up for the masses  and speak truth to power as he is noted for to prove people that thinks he has become big on bigotry wrong, in view of his personal relationship with president Ahmed Bola Tinubu. He should not succumb to the perils of indifference or what the late Cicero of Ago Iwoye ,late Chief Bola Ige calls “siddon look” under this government.

In the words of Ken Saro Wiwa “the writer cannot be a mere story teller;he cannot be a mere teacher ;he cannot merely x-ray society’s weakness ,its peril .He or she must be actively involved in shaping its present and its future “. We respectfully urge our own revered literary giant not to fail at this time in shaping the destiny of Nigeria,while wishing him a big congratulations on the honour that came his way.

Dr Uche Akunebu, is the Head of poets of the world (Poet del mundo) Nigerian chapter and Editor of international human rights arts Festival based in New.