WOLE SOYINKA WHAT AILS YOU ?

While growing up,of all my personal and mysterious wishes that I have held dear in my heart, one of such is to meet the following three people before I depart this world if the Supreme Being permits;

One is to meet Benny Hill. One of the greatest gifts of God bestowed luckily on this generation.

Two, is to meet The Bushes, most especially George W.Bush. My secret admiration for him might be inordinate and, to some childish. However, I stick to my gun.

Three, is to meet, this enigma called Wole Soyinka.




Of all the men that have fought for humanity in our age and time; this icon stood tall. Mandela gave his all to South Africa, Martin Luther King (Jnr) to the Americans, Stevie Biko to South Africa, and Gani Fawehinmi to his native land Nigeria.




"...A guy is gorra have his principles. I'm a right guy. I mean you just look arrit this way. If you gonna be killed by a car, you don't wanna be killed by a Volkswagen. You wanre Limousine, a Ponriac or something like that. Well thas my principle..." - Say Tokyo Kid, "The Road". The statement from his blog .





I wished to know why these men that bestrode this age like a dinosaur and unquenchable thirst , has done and in certain cases of few of them that are still alive ,continue to do ,what they have been doing for the common man in this wasted opportunity-ridden Africa, most especially –the empire of Nigeria (because we have no country, yet).



I wished to know why, people like Wole Soyinka of all the opportunities he could have derived by joining in league with the oppressors and dine with the devils against the common man on the streets of Nigeria, have decided otherwise. He could also have joined scores of all others, who with unconcern, self conceit and contentment sit and relax at the comfort of their expansive palaces and watch on CNN and BCC, all the great and grave injustice being melted down to their fellow countrymen. They pretend when they come out from the confines of their palatial mansions ,that all is well , deriding and arguing against comments and conclusions that an average Nigeria lives in abject poverty; of materials, body and soul.




Here is a man, an African Nobel Laureate, the first African to win a Nobel Prize, at the fore front of every battle for the survival of the common man in Nigeria. The barbaric, brutal oppression, suppression and intimidation of the superior fire power of the ‘vampiric’ military junta in Nigeria could not stop him, nor make him stagger. Repeated, Imprisonment and incarceration could not sway his faith, fate and determination in the course of his struggle for mankind.



If I were Wole Soyinka, with all his achievements on the field of human achievement, with a Nobel Prize in my kitty, which in one way made him the foremost Nigerian dramatist while at the same time becomes the first African laureate of Nobel Prize, enrolling for good to the history of world’s literature and to the heritage of humanity. what could I have done with such unprecedented achievement on the continent of Africa?



I would have decided by now to join the Bourgeoisies’ club and relax with my family, others might go to hell for all I care. This could have been what millions of us would do as we watched millions of others doing today.



Then what propelled this man, to be a great moral icon, choosing this cause and course, he has chosen and for ages abide by it, sticking to his gun, never flattery, never ‘waivery’ and never say die.




Psychologists must come out with a novel idea of how people like these chose the cause ,that means danger to them and to their comfort, most especially when they have all the opportunities in the world to choose otherwise.



What propelled Wole; Wealth, Women, Wine? The ‘three-evils’, against men of stature. Far from it! Wealth? The Nobel alone can cater for that for the rest of his life on earth and moreover joining the oppressive ’power that be’ could have guarantee him more and more undeserved and stolen wealth of the masses. Women ? If he decides to, the best would always be at his beacon for life, without having to risk his life for the common man to achieve such. Then, wine? Such a man like this is above the reproach of more ‘bottle-less-sorrow’,moderation is the key.



Then, is it fame? If a man is made a king and his praying for greatness, what his he looking for( that his not already intertwined with his kingship).Or is such a king planning to be God? A well noted adage of the Yoruba of West Africa says. If it is fame, which other fame, greatness and achievement, a modern man could ever wished or prayed for beyond the Nobel Prize?















Then what propelled this man? Wole Soyinka.