Wole Soyinka at 80

At his age, he remains very much in the trenches, fighting for whatever he believes in. He is never afraid to speak his mind and he often does so with gusto and by employing the most memorable of imageries.In 1965, during the election crisis in the then Western region, Soyinka was alleged to have seized […]

At his age, he remains very much in the trenches, fighting for whatever he believes in. He is never afraid to speak his mind and he often does so with gusto and by employing the most memorable of imageries.
In 1965, during the election crisis in the then Western region, Soyinka was alleged to have seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional elections. In 1967 during the Nigerian Civil War, Soyinka was arrested by the federal government and put in solitary confinement for two years. It was during this period that he wrote what in my opinion, is his best work: The Man Died. As a younger man in my final year in secondary school (1979/1980), I could very easily recite off head the first few chapters of the book. I was simply taken in by the spirit of defiance of the man and the radicalism that oozed from every word he penned. From that book I learned a very memorable quote: “In he who keeps silent in the face of tyranny, the man dies”. In his poem “Telephone conversation’, the same radicalism and naughtiness seeped through every word:

The price seemed reasonable, location
Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived
 Off premises. Nothing remained
 But self-confession. “Madam,” I warned,
 I hate a wasted journey—I am African.”
 Silence. Silenced transmission of
 Pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came,
 Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled
 Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was, foully.
—
“THAT’S DARK, ISN’T IT?” “Not altogether.
  Facially, I am brunette, but madam, you should see
  The rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet
 Are a peroxide blonde. Friction, caused—
   Foolishly, madam—by sitting down, has turned
 My bottom raven black—One moment madam!”—sensing
 Her receiver rearing on the thunderclap
 About my ears—“Madam,” I pleaded, “wouldn’t you rather
 See for yourself?”

The young Soyinka had famously dismissed Leopold Senghor’s Négritude movement (a literary and ideological movement developed by Francophone black intellectuals, writers, and politicians in France in the 1930s) saying it was merely a nostalgic and indiscriminate glorification of the black African past. Soyinka advised leaders of the movement, which was the rave at the time, that a  “tiger does not  proclaim  its tigritude”.  
Because my publishing firm Adonis & Abbey Publishers (www.adonis-abbey.com) incubated and published for three years the periodical African Performance Review for the African Theatre Association, I became quite close to a number of scholars very close to the ‘real sage” (no disrespect meant to Awolowo). One of those close to the journal, the poet Esiaba Irobi, an unrepentant Soyinkaist, held several discussions with me for for my publishing firm to publish a journal he simply called ‘Soyinka’. Unfortunately Irobi died before the Soyinka journal could see the light of the day.
I picked several other stories about Soyinka from members of the African Theatres Association – some of which I suspect are mere myths. Let me share two of these:
Wole Soyinka was said to be doing a television interview when the white interviewer who was obviously very impressed with his intellectual agility asked him why he did not try to obtain a PhD. Soyinka was said to have dabbled into a prolonged laughter after which he reportedly retorted to the journalist: “But who will mark it?”
In another story, Soyinka was said to have told a gathering of his admirers: “there are so many women who pester me to make children for them – in the hope they will have a child who is a genius. I am not sure if I believe in their idea of how to create a genius, but whenever I can, I help”.
I wish you a happy birthday Sir.

Comeuppance for Nyako?
Barring divine intervention, Murtala Nyako, will soon cease to be Governor of Adamawa State. He will either have been impeached or he will have resigned to avoid the ugly consequences of impeachment. If impeached or if he resigns, the immunity he enjoys as a Governor will have been removed and he will, so to say, be vulnerable to the elements,  including the possibly of unfriendly visitations by the EFCC.
Nyako and his Deputy Bala James Ngilari have been accused of corruption and sundry financial and administrative recklessness by 19 of the 25 members of the Adamawa State legislature. The 20 grounds of impeachment articulated by the legislators included that Governor Nyako fraudulently diverted N10 billion in workers’ salaries for September and October 2011 and also fraudulently spent N120m “to sponsor a fictitious visit of General Muhammadu Buhari to Adamawa State”. His Deputy, Ngilari, who remained in the PDP when Nyako defected to the APC, was accused of extra-budgetary expenditures of N390m as overhead costs from January to December 2013.  
Some political  commentators believe that Nyako was the main target of the impeachment move and that his Deputy was merely dragged into it to avoid the issue of religion compounding the existing problems in the State, if Ngilari,  a Christian, were to succeed him when/if he is impeached.
A 7-member panel set up by acting Chief Judge Justice of the state Ambrose Mammadi controversially served notice of the impeachment to Governor Nyako and his Deputy through substituted service.  
For many, Nyako’s travails smacks of politics, a continuation of his altercation with the presidency after he had infamously written a letter to the 18 Northern state governors accusing President Jonathan of carrying out genocide against the north. He also reminded his fellow Northern Governors that Jonathan is from the Eastern region, which he alleged, killed the northern political leaders during the first military coup in 1966.
Several lessons can be drawn from the Nyako ordeal:
One,  for those who nurse a nostalgia for Obasanjo as a ‘strong leader’ (of course some also criticize his garrison commander style of politics to complete the love-hate relationship many Nigerians have for him), they may  now have their wish fulfilled in an Obasajonized Jonathan – if indeed, the presidency is behind the impeachment move as some have alleged. Like people from Middle East, Nigerians seem not to respect leaders who are restrained. We saw this in the way the UPN press, (The Sketch and Tribune), routinely ridiculed President Shehu Shagari during the Second Republic because he was restrained or weak (depending on which side you are). We also saw it in the confrontation between Governors Nyako and Kwakwanso on the one hand and President Jonathan and his supporters on the other hand. While there are grounds for criticizing the President during those altercations I believe there had not been sufficient respect for the office of the presidency by Nyako and Kwakwanso.
Two, assuming that President Jonathan is behind the impeachment move (Governor Nyako exonerated him from that but his body language says otherwise) and that the real issue was that offensive letter from Governor Nyako, one of the lessons for us is how to walk that fine line between exercising our democratic rights to trade our ideas aggressively in the political marketplace and crossing the line to insult certain institutions such as the presidency, Governorship or traditional institutions. Our civic culture remains behind our political development.
Three, that instances of corruption could be cobbled together to serve as a mask for political vendetta (as some people suspect)  reminds us that there is hardly anyone  you go digging into his backside without encountering some offensive odour. This knowledge should be a restraint on our behaviour when we choose to see no good in whatever our opponent does.  
Four, assuming that the presidency is behind, or has the powers to stop, the impeachment, it will be a caution to those who are romanticizing the idea of parliamentary democracy. In parliamentary democracies, a government falls by a simple vote of no confidence or loss of parliamentary majority. Given our temperament and our experiences with impeachments, under Westminster parliamentary democracy, we are likely to see governors being changed more frequently than some state governors change the speakers of their state legislature. It is also a call for us to consider whether we need tightening our current impeachment laws such as requiring a referendum before a governor is impeached.
Five, if Nyako is impeached, how will that impact on opposition politics? Will that make those playing to the gallery to develop self-censorship or will that simply emasculate the opposition? And if so, will that strengthen or emasculate our democracy?  Will the signal sent by his current travails mature our political discourses?
Six, while I will not shed any tears for Nyako if he goes, I will worry about the whole import of his impeachment on our democratic process. Is there perhaps a better way of communicating our strong displeasure to a politician who throws decorum to the wind, crosses the line and incites people against Nigerians from a section of the country other than going through the impeachment route? How do we learn to strongly disagree with our political opponents while still respecting the office they occupy? How do we objectify what will constitute impeachable offences?