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The Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, is rolling out the drums for a weekend-long celebration of Prof. Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in Literature, at 90. In this interview with TOPE TEMPLER OLAIYA, he shares what the celebration means for Egba and Ogun State, and why the Federal Government should designate his birthday, July 13, as a national Soyinka Day.

Congratulations Kabiyesi; one of the noble Egba sons is marking his 90th birthday. Sir, why do you think this has to be celebrated?
The question should be, why not? If you have a son who has done very well, who has taken your name to the whole world, and who has been so productive, who fights for justice, who fights for what is right at all times, who is a soldier for humanity, then you should celebrate him. And God has now given him long life to reach the age of 90. It calls for a big celebration.

The literary giant is a son of our great kingdom, the Akinlatun of Egbaland. We are excited to honour a living legend, the first black man to be awarded the Nobel Laureate prize in Literature, a quintessential essayist, poet, dramatist, playwright, novelist, film maker, teacher, actor, hunter, Majamaja, human rights and political activist, anti-corruption campaigner and globally respected elder statesman.

Does he even want to be celebrated? He is an enigma as we all know. So, if you see him at any of the celebrations in Lagos, Abeokuta, Ibadan or Ife, all well and good. If you do not see him, we will still celebrate him. Whenever you call him, you have to first ask him ‘where are you?’ Because if he’s not lecturing somewhere in the Middle East or the UAE, he may be in Morocco, otherwise he could be in USA or UK. And when he sneaks into Nigeria, before you know, he’s gone again. He’s a very valuable person wanted everywhere.

But that won’t stop us from celebrating our own WS. The theme of our celebration is ‘Defiance and Creativity – A Celebration of Soyinka’s Artistic Ingenuity and Impact on Nigeria, Africa and the Entire World.’ Taking place in his roots, Ake, it is an opportunity to appropriately reflect on his remarkable contributions to literature, his unwavering commitment to justice and unrelenting passion for our culture and heritage.

So many people want to know exactly what type of a person is Wole Soyinka. From your relationship with him over the years, what kind of a person is Soyinka?
Well, he’s what Yorubas call Akanda Eyan, one who cannot be compared with somebody else. He’s God’s own creation. When he believes in something, even to the embarrassment of his own people, he will fight for that; because he will convince you that that is the right thing to do. And he will go on doing it, even if nobody is following him, once he’s convinced that what he’s doing is right. And most of the time, 100 per cent of the time, as a matter of fact, he’s always doing the right thing. Because he thinks deeply, he’s a humanist to the core. He cannot stand injustice. And that runs in his family.

He’s just showing what the whole family is made of. Fela, Beko, even Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, the principal of my own father at Abeokuta Grammar School, who taught them to stand for the truth, to fight for the truth, to put their name down for whatever they believe in and to fight injustice wherever it exists. And that’s what Wole Soyinka has done all his life.

What is the relationship between Soyinka and the Kutis?
They are cousins. Wole Soyinka’s mother and the Kutis are one and the same. Soyinka’s mom is nee Kuti.

Do you have any close relationship with Soyinka?
I was born in the same place as Prof. I was born in the same hospital. I was delivered by the same woman, a Scottish woman. And we lived in the same area, within 200 metres in Ake here. He happens to be nine years older than I. I related more with his younger brothers and sisters because by the time I was a toddler, he was already in Government College Ibadan and from there University of Ibadan, Leeds University and the world.

One of the books he ever wrote is titled Ake. At the Ake roundabout, his mother use to have a shop, she was an activist like her son, standing for the truth and defying anybody who wants to stand between her and justice. Wole Soyinka met this trait at home; it was in his blood.

But we have always known him as somebody who would go far. And he has never disconnected from his roots. When we do things in Egbaland, he always supports us and we feel his impact. If you don’t see him, he will contribute. Unless you don’t get him to ask him, what are you doing about this? He’s a kind of person who is very peculiar in his own way. But whatever happens, he is part and parcel of it. And if he doesn’t like it, he will tell you so. If he’s for it, he will go all the way to fight for it.

Like you said earlier, Soyinka is not afraid of even fighting his own people. He is always at loggerheads with the likes of Baba Obasanjo. When things like this happen, how do you normally feel?
We feel okay because we cannot all sleep and face one direction as the Yoruba will say. So, you are free to justify your own position; to tell the world why you are where you are. So, if he has a problem with Obasanjo and had to go to the United Nations with placards and so on, it’s because he believed in what he was doing. So, we have no cause to stop him.

Can you share a bit of his growing up years you remember?
He started school when he was about two years old. He took himself to school and carried his father’s book. They asked him what he was going to do and he said he was going to read. So, God had showed him from when he was very young that he would go far. And we thank God that the devil didn’t stop him. He got very, very far. Have you seen the list of his works?
He grew up inside the school in Ake; his father was a teacher. He just walked into the school as a toddler and said he wants to start.

Kabiyesi, what is so special about Egbaland? You have so many icons here?
It’s because we are the first to meet the Oyinbo man. We are the first to imbibe a different culture, to mix it with ours and take out what is best in both worlds. We were the first to have a hospital, Western medicine. We were the first to have a newspaper. We were the first to have the first secondary school. CMS Grammar School started in Abeokuta before it was moved to Lagos. We are the first to welcome the white man properly, not fighting. In other words, this is the seat or cradle of civilisation and Christianity.

You have thrown a challenge to the Federal Government on the need to honour this great man, Soyinka…
He is a pride to the whole of Africa, not just to the Nigerian government. So, why would they not honour him? If New Orleans, a state in America, has named a day in the year after him, why not Nigeria. We must appreciate what we have. If others are already recognising your own thing, then what are you doing? We should not wait till he dies. We should recognise him properly at 90 and give him all the honour he deserves.

So, I am re-emphasising the recommendation I made earlier on behalf of all sons and daughters of Egbaland at home and in the diaspora that the 13th of July of every year be celebrated as Wole Soyinka Day. This is in acknowledgment of him being the first Nobel Laureate in literature in the whole of Africa. Somebody who has placed literature, poetry, drama, etc. on the world map. It is worth celebrating. We’re also asking that if November 1 of every year in New Orleans has been set aside as Wole Soyinka Day, what about the place where he was born, his place of birth, his country of origin?

We’re asking that July 13 be adopted by the Federal Government and that a national honour, second on the list of honours in this nation, second only to that of the President, the GCON, be conferred on Prof. Wole Soyinka.

Looking at the life of Soyinka, what is your take-home message?
It is that we should not suppress any of our children. Whatever they want to do that is legitimate, we should back them. Give them support if it is writing stories, any mechanical work that they are doing, whether it is repairing and dismantling of objects; whatever a child is doing, we should encourage that child, as long as that thing is legitimate so that we will get more Nobel Laureates from this country by the grace of God.

Lately, the traditional institution has been under some form of threat with raging friction between the throne and the state government, particularly in the North. Don’t you feel that the actions of politicians are threatening the traditional institution?
The politicians succeeded the traditional institution. The monarchy used to be sole authority. For instance, the Alake used to hold the keys to the prison yard where they lock up people who are not supposed to be among sane human beings. So, naturally, since we have opted for majority rule, we should expect that a bit of friction with this traditional thing will still be there.

But with time, we’ll get to where Britain is, where everything is constitutional monarchy, where everybody knows where he or she stands. By then the friction will be reduced.

Did you face any of such friction, especially when ascending the throne in 2005?
It’s not that in modern times we are deviating from the laid down rules of appointing monarchs. No, what has happened is they have put on paper the old system. Kingmakers have always been there, only that the government has codified it and put it in legal form.

For instance, in Egbaland, there must be 25 kingmakers – five from each of five townships who control and oversee the election of the Alake, who are in charge of the election. Election is only the first step. Government will have to confirm and authorise the election. So, when you are elected, it does not mean that you are already the Oba, they just call you Oba-elect. That’s all. Government would need to now confirm you. So that’s the position. Between the election and the confirmation, there may be some misunderstanding and misinterpretation of roles from either side.

How then can the friction between the monarchy and the state be reduced?
Give it time. Some of those who are there now tasted the sole authorityship. The transition process is ongoing. Give it time. We will get to where Britain is, where everybody knows where his own power stands, where it stops and where it begins. And then we will have less friction between the traditional institution and the government of the day.

Recently, there has been a resurgence of kidnapping on highways in the state. Just on Sunday, some set of travellers along Shagamu were kidnapped. Now people are asking for state police, what is your own view about all of these?
Look at America practicing the same presidential system of government like ours but they have different levels of policing. Why should we now end up with only federal police? We had state police before; we had local government police before and they were a lot more useful than the Nigeria Police Force in catching petty thieves and keeping everywhere safe. We have to go back to them.

But for the military government that totally made everything federal, we still had state police until 1966. They know the nooks and crannies. They are the people and they belong to the community. They were born there and brought up there. If there was any new face in any area, people will tell the policeman because they are close to the people. Not now that somebody will be posted from across the River Niger to you who does not know the system and nuances of the community. That’s not right.

Kabiyesi, you are also very close to the grassroots. There’s an ongoing conversation around local government autonomy, that many of them are just existing and not doing anything. Presently, the Federal Government has taken the states before the Supreme Court to compel them to grant local government autonomy. What’s your take on it?

The matter is already in court. So why should I comment on it? Let us wait for the court to decide. I’m not a judge of the court. But you must remember one thing – who are the federating units in Nigeria? Is it 36 states or is it 774 local government areas? The court must address some of the questions on federalism.

Nigeria has been going through some turbulent times. Citizens are not finding it easy with the rate of inflation, hunger and economic hardship. What’s your advice to government, especially to President Bola Tinubu, on how he can move the country forward and alleviate the plight of the masses?
I’m a traditional ruler. I have the ears of the President. I’ll talk to him one on one on issues I cannot take him to the public forum. The President is an Egba chief. And so, we must always get together. He’s the Aare Ago of Egbaland. By the grace of God, pretty soon we are going to get out of all of this. Everything will become normal very, very soon, earlier than you can imagine. The President must be listening to what the masses are saying. He’s a listening man and hearing what the people are saying.

So, what’s your wish for Kongi at 90?
That God will spare his life. That he will continue to write and give us a lot more to celebrate after he must have gone, which all of us must do at one time or the other. We thank God that God has spared his life to be 90. And I pray that he will continue to be very, very useful; he will enjoy good health to the last. He will not be carried from one hospital to another.

The post Gbadebo: Ake proud to celebrate Soyinka, an enigma and Akanda Eyan at 90 appeared first on Guardian Nigeria News.

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