Wole Soyinka: Still at the Receiving End of Innuendos at 90!

Back in 2002, as residents of 16, Apple Avenue, No Man’s Land, Kano, which housed the Foremast Hill Anchor Point, Herbert Nwaka, Kingsley Ayewe and I discussed the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission otherwise known as the “Oputa Panel”. Of particular interest then was the petition filed by the National Association of Seadogs (the Pyrates Confraternity) on behalf of some of its members.

In his testimony, Ifeanyi Onochie who was arrested in Enugu on the orders of the then Military Administrator of Enugu State, Colonel Sule Ahman a few days after his wedding in 1997 told a chilling story of torture and excruciating pain. He and other known members of the Association were described as National Security Risks (NSR) after their arrest.

Herbert had asked if anyone had videos of the Panel’s sittings but quite unfortunately, our plans to ask at the Library of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Kano never came through.

21 years later, I shared a clip on my WhatsApp status, it was that of Professor Wole Soyinka being cross-examined during one of the sittings of the Oputa Panel. In the video, a female lawyer asked whether Professor Soyinka’s children or family members were members of the Pyrates Confraternity. His response drew applause when he pointed out that his son, Olaokun was a member and that “he was initiated in Zero Meridian, that is, the chapter in London”.

One of the friends on my contact list was quick to wonder why the response should be applauded. In her opinion, those clapping were oblivious to the fact that “Prof sent his son abroad while he was encouraging the children of others to be doing rubbish in Nigeria”. My efforts to remind her that Dr. Olaokun Soyinka who served as a Commissioner in Ogun State had a British mother didn’t seem to make sense to her.

I asked what her answer would have been if Professor Soyinka had answered that none of his children or family members were Pyrates, and that ended the conversation.

Professor Soyinka is not new to “dragging” as the internet-savvy generation often describes self-satisfying criticisms usually done online. But now that the New Media has given a seemingly unlimited freedom of expression, the intensity of the dragging seems to have been increased a hundred-fold.

A line of thought recently surfaced online that African writers like Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong’O, and others boycotted the Nobel Prize when Wole Soyinka won it in 1986. One begins to wonder how the boycott was never heard of until 38 years later. When there was no evidence to support that narrative, they pushed further that he betrayed other African writers by accepting the Prize, since in their opinion, the Royal Academy had until then ignored African writers.

It was, however, never on record that Achebe publicly criticized Soyinka for winning the Nobel Prize. It was also never heard that Professors Soyinka and Achebe quarreled in the latter’s lifetime. In March 1986, J.P Clark, Wole Soyinka, and Chinua Achebe visited Dodan Barracks to plead with President Ibrahim Babangida to spare Major General Maman Vatsa, who had been charged with plotting a coup.

The spotless white ram Wole Soyinka sent as a 60th birthday gift to Chinua Achebe in 1990 would not be forgotten by those who attended the reception, especially those who partook of the barbecue it ended up being used for. It was on record that as the animal was delivered, the celebrant quipped, “Typical of Wole”. That was how close they had become over the decades.

It is an open secret that the casus belli with the Internet Generation were Soyinka’s stance on the 2023 presidential election and his “gbajue” comment on a claim of victory. Interestingly, an aggrieved member of the party claiming to have been robbed of victory recently made a video querying what the party would tell the “six million plus people that voted for the party” if it cannot ensure internal democracy. That in itself was an allusion that the election results were indeed correct. Sadly, the children of the people whose rights Soyinka advocated for when he was jailed for criticizing the Gowon administration in 1967 were most prominent in the recent dragging frenzy.

Describing him as the “Father of Cultism in Nigeria” is already overstated. Many have completely forgotten that the Pyrates Confraternity was formed by Soyinka and six other undergraduates of the University College Ibadan (as the University of Ibadan was then known) who are hardly ever given credit. What is perhaps more worrisome is that no one bothers about who founded other fraternities some of whose members have caused untold damage to lives and properties in campuses across Nigeria.

One thing is obvious, at 90, Wole Soyinka’s Kongi has not melted. Age and his belief in Ogun Lakaaye notwithstanding, he is still the humanist he has always been and he still adheres to the ‘Seven Four’ Creed of the Pyrates. That explains why members of the Confraternity still esteem him, especially now that he is the only one of the Original Seven still alive. The criticisms will keep coming as long as he does not slow down.

The reason? No one stones a fruitless tree and the only way to avoid criticism is to say nothing and do nothing which the WS I know will never do. Anyways, in his typical manner, he is never tired of stating that, unlike the hoodlums who now parade the campuses, Pyrates of yore were “mischievous but not criminal”.

As Professor Soyinka is being celebrated at different across the continents, one can only pray for a smoother sail for the man styled after Peter Blood, the Captain of Cap’ns.

 

Adejumo sent this piece from Ibadan