Beyond the books, I’ve had several fond memories of my encounter with Prof. Wole Soyinka. My first meeting with this global icon was in September 2005 at the Airport Hotel, Ikeja. On that day, he left an indelible memory in my soul. He spoke with me and some other journalists for over an hour. He wasn’t sitting. He stood throughout the duration of the interview!
A week later, in spite of his tight schedule and age, Prof. Soyinka joined other ‘warriors’ like the late Comrade Chima Ubani, Comrade Adams Oshiomole, Senator Babafemi Ojudu and several others as we march from the National Stadium all the way to the seat of power in Alausa to protest the incessant increment in pump price of petroleum products in Nigeria. One unfortunate thing about this day was that it was the last time I would see Comrade Ubani as he was killed in an auto crash in Potiskum, Yobe State few weeks later while on his way back from a protest organised by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the north east region.
Another fond memory was when my indefatigable Faculty Manager at The College of Journalism, Mr. Femi Falodun ‘dragged’ me and some of my classmates to the first edition of the Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Journalism at the Muson Centre. Naming such a great award after Prof. Soyinka is noteworthy. Journalists that have won this award over the years will forever treasure the plague and the honour that is associated with it.
In the first edition, Emmanuel Mayah, a senior correspondent with The Sun Newspaper in Lagos won the 1st prize in the Print category of the award for exposing the degrading working environment in Nigerian industry.
According to the organiser of the award, Emmanuel Mayah’s winning story, Inside Nigeria’s Industrial Concentration Camps, is an undercover investigation whose outcome reveals official corruption, corporate subterfuge and slavery in Asian-owned factories in Nigeria. The story narrates the sufferings, trauma and deaths of hundreds of Nigerians working under inhuman conditions, and identifies government officials –past and present – and their parts in the gross human rights abuses perpetuated in these factories.
Mayah faced challenges including that of the attendant pains of malnutrition, psychological trauma of working under the strict, inhuman conditions in these camps in the course of the investigations.
In the broadcast category, Deji Badmus’ Makoko Demolition report took the centre stage. The Makoko story is a report of human rights abuse by state actors. It details a demolition exercise by mobile policemen and the impact on the residents who were rendered homeless. It speaks to government and state actors who, instead of protecting the people, expose them to immense hardships.
The winner of the Photo Category was Bayoor Ewuoso. His winning entry is a report of human rights abuse in Nigeria, especially by agents of government. The entry exposes the Nigerian Police’s brutality on citizens and further recommends its condemnation, especially as it acts against the tenets of good governance and democracy which the nation claims to practice.
In few years to come, it is my belief that this award will attain an iconic height that every journalist around the world will go all-out to be part of. It will outrank in stature the Joseph Pulitzer award for Journalism.
Indeed, Prof. Wole Soyinka is the conscience of the nation. He is the iroko of our democratic experiment. His constant interventions in our nation’s affairs have made a whole lot of difference. His speeches, interviews, articles and books are standing in the gap for our nation. Notably for me, his immortal books, The Interventions (Volume 1-3), capture his heartbeat towards our nation. The Intervention series put on the spotlight the myriad of challenges bedevilling our nation.
It is my hope that as Prof. Wole Soyinka enters the octogenarian club, the younger generation will take the baton from him and surpass his achievements. He has laid the foundation for us. We can stand on his shoulder to see further and make amend faster so that ours will not be a wasted generation.
It is my hope that the new generation will bring to reality the vision of a great nation. It is my hope that this new generation will eschew tribalism and ethnicity in our quest to build a great nation.
It is my hope that this new generation will not be debating how to share money but we will be debating how to create more wealth for our nation. It is my hope that the new generation will not be debating about the state of origin, indigene and settlers.
It is my hope that this generation will make Nigeria a world power to be reckoned with in the comity of nations.
It is my hope that this new generation will build a world class research centre in Sambisa Forest where the Chibok girls – after their release from their abductors – will churn out inventions that will pedestal Nigeria as a great nation.
It is my hope that this new generation will emulate the great ideals of Prof. Wole Soyinka. And by the time this icon gets set to join the centenarian club, he will boldly say that this new generation is a fruitful generation.
Happy birthday, Prof. Wole Soyinka.
Written by Samuel O. Adeyemi.
