Allow me to convey my admiration for Professor Wole Soyinka’s thoughts and work, whose international renown as a playwright and writer often overshadows his status as a successful poet and social commentator. This combination inspired him to mock the All Progressive Congress after they lost the governorship election in Osun State on July 16 to the Peoples Democratic Party and governor-elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke, a member of the Adeleke family known for grassroots politics and mobilisation. While congratulating him, President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) described his victory as the people’s wish.

He claimed that the election results demonstrated that the late Bola Ige’s voice could still be heard from the grave where he was buried after being assassinated in a gruesome manner at his Bodija-Ibadan residence on December 23, 2001, while serving as the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice. In a statement made on Sunday, shortly after the Independent National Electoral Commission declared the election results, headlined “Osun State elections: Ige’s voice,” the Nobel Laureate stated, “The voice of Ajibola Ige, slain Minister of Justice, resounds from the grave.” Those who colluded to elevate his detractors to undeserved national prominence, insult the memories of the living, and disregard basic ethical limitations have been justly punished. Although Soyinka did not name anyone, a PUNCH Newspaper reporter wrote in his explanation, “The playwright protested against the emergence of a former deputy governor of Osun State, Chief Iyiola Omisore, as the APC National Publicity Secretary at the 2022 National Convention held between April 26 and 27, where 77 national officers emerged.”

It is at this point that one may wonder what Soyinka genuinely intends. Does he want the trial reopened, as he has sought from the President? Does he want new suspects arrested and tried? I am not a lawyer, and Omisore has not assigned me the task of cleaning up his image. However, one takeaway from Soyinka’s statement is to wait for the Lagos governorship election and see if Funsho William’s voice would also resonate from the grave. Prior to his gruesome death, Engineer Funsho Williams was an experienced governorship candidate on the PDP platform. On that fatal day, his assailants were waiting for him at his home in Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi. Senators Adeseye Ogunlewe, a close associate of Williams at the time, and Musliu Obanikoro, who defected from the Alliance for Democracy to the ruling party, were among those imprisoned but eventually released. Senator Bola Tinubu, the APC presidential contender, was holding the forte as Lagos State Governor at the time, and bandits were not on the loose.

Those that were freed at the time were already fervent APC supporters. In response, the Lagos PDP stated that it expects a recurrence of the Osun scenario in the state’s upcoming governorship race, while the APC believes the PDP is hallucinating. Time will tell.

My fascination in Soyinka began as a young schoolboy when Basorun Dele Momodu, a debonair ovation publisher and former PDP Presidential candidate, and I were on our way to Dr. Ajayi’s (Dele’s brother) flat at the Obafemi Awolowo University Staff Quarters. Ajayi, who had recently returned to Nigeria, was engaged by the then-University of Ife, which was regarded as one of the greatest universities in the West Africa Sub-region. Unlike today, when sex-for-mark and other illicit enterprises reign supreme. Dele spoke glowingly about Soyinka, who was then a resident of the university quarters, as soon as we (Dele and I) alighted from the bus that transported us from Ife town, and my mind has been fixated on him ever since. So, when I got the chance to show it, I adapted several of his poems on social protest for my final year thesis for my Bachelor’s degree in English. At an event in the Muson Centre Lagos, several years ago, I informed him that I used his work in my first degree project, and he asked me to drop a copy of my long essay with his son, Makin, at Freedom Park in central Lagos.

I met Makin several times, but I never mentioned dropping it for him because I only had one copy with me. Professor Oluwole Akinwande Soyinka was born on July 13, 1934, to an Ijebu father from Ishara in Ijebu-Remo and an Egba mother from Abeokuta; a combination that led him to call himself “Ijegba” in his autobiography, ‘Ake: The Years of Childhood.’ Cosmopolitan in view, he rejects cultural constraints and readily accepts the alien into his receptive psyche. This allows him to integrate traditional African culture with Judeo-Christian and Western literary traditions. His 88-year-old hold finger is in every possible pie. We have Soyinka, the lyricist, singer, actor, writer, hunter, scourge, rebel, revolutionary, and embodiment of creativity. He moved from the University of Ife to the University of Lagos until August 1967, when he was appointed Director of the School of Drama at the University of Ibadan, a position he never held until October 1969, when he was released from a two-year detention by the Gown regime on charges of attempting to assist secessionists in the Nigeria-Biafra War. He had multiple contacts with the then-Western Regional Government beginning in 1962.

In 1965, he was arrested and tried on the claim that he held up a Radio Nigeria continuity announcer in Ibadan at gunpoint and substituted his own tape for the one meant to be broadcast by the then-Premier of Western Nigeria, Late Oladoke Akintola. However, the presiding judge released and acquitted him. Underpinning all of Soyinka’s social actions is his fervent belief that life could be more disciplined, responsible, and enjoyable.

Congratulations to Kongi, who is 88 years old.