Prof Wole Soyinka at the launch of the book, Selected poems in Lagos

By Nehru Odeh

Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has taken his verbal war with the Emir of Ilorin Sulu Gambari to another level. This time rather than excoriate the traditional ruler directly, he put his literary knowledge to use, satirizing him, using irony to pass his message across and yet attacking him.

This was at the presentation of Soyinka’s latest book, “Selected Poems(1965-2022) A Retrospective”, which was held at Providus Bank Corporate Office in Victoria Island, Lagos on Sunday 16 July 2023. Soyinka was in conversation with award-winning poet and Lawyer Tade Ipadeola and poet Juliet Nnaji.

Soyinka did not only dedicate two poems to Gambari but made use of irony, a literary technique, to attack him; as he praised him to high heavens for the exemplary behaviour and virtue of tolerance he displayed recently by cancelling the Isese festival in Ilorin, Kwara State.

Soyinka was indeed speaking the other way round as he branded Gambari a hypocrite, liar and an enabler of violence, who says one thing and does the opposite.

A cross section of attendees

Erelu Abiola Dosunmu, left, and others

However, Soyinka’s message was not lost on the audience at the event as he likened him to enemies of the open society such as Boko Haram, and ISWAP, whose actions inspire school children to murder people in the name of religion and piety.

Gambari’s so-called exemplary virtue, Soyinka maintained  “leads even to turning our fellow school children, our fellow children into murderers, murdering their colleague. At a tender age, they become killers simply because of examples  of tolerance, of leadership shown by figures like the Emir, Sulu Gambari.”

The wife of the Managing Director, Providus Bank, Mrs Winnie Akpani giving the vote of thanks.

“I am dedicating those two poems to a great Nigerian figure, a jurist, a legalist, a leader, a royal figure, an elder of men and women,   a role model, one of the most tolerant ecumenically spirited individuals that this nation has ever produced. And his name I believe you all know him. You should.  His name is Sulu Gambari, and he is the emir of Ilorin.  So these two poems are dedicated to him in appreciation of his role, his leadership model, his exemplary quality, the virtue of tolerance to his set subjects, and his fellow beings generally.

“I would like to commend him, to recommend him to all of you here and all the world as an example to follow in your dealings with your fellow men, women and children.  He should go further if possible when I outstrip him because you see virtues like tolerance an example of which I have cited.

“Virtues like that lead eventually even to martyrdom. It leads to the public butchering of our children like Deborah for instance. The kind of example, the kind of virtue I am talking about leads even to turning our fellow school children into murderers, murdering their colleagues. At a tender age, they become killers simply because of examples of tolerance, of leadership shown by figures like the emir, Sulu Gambari.

“We know people like Sulu Gambari, Boko Haram, ISWAP,  all those who believe that theirs and only theirs is the only way of understanding and approaching government.  And heaven helps all those who cannot follow the path they are blazing so openly, so lovingly the rest of humanity. And when some of us, of course, try to highlight their conduct,  to make sure that the whole;e world appreciates them, they are so modest in saying that their land does not require any special garnishing.  That they actually speak to themselves and therefore we should go and sit down and mind our poetry perhaps, “Soyinka averred.

The highly respected literary icon also used the opportunity to demand three things from governments at the national and international levels, while casting aspersion on Sulu Gambari and other enablers of violence for their hypocritical and holier-than-thou attitude, adding that in the United Arab Emirates a respected level of intolerance which t not only treats human beings as equals but also gives them freedom of choice is maintained.

The first demand Soyinka made was that all files must be opened on all those who have been killed because of intolerance.

“All the case files must be opened on all those who have been killed because of intolerance.  I don’t care if they were said to have abused this avatar or this prophet or not. The most important thing is that they have been extra-judicially murdered. And time and time again, these files disappear.

“The students who butchered, who killed in public, in open daylight in the presence of crown police, the students who were arrested have been released. I understand that some police commands commented that they are not expected to go and manufacture accused or perpetrators. Imagine that kind of language coming from those who are supposed to protect us in this country. Something was done there, claims were made, the students who chased that girl into what you consider safety  were known, some of them were arrested and then they were freed

“And we say that we are living in a civilised society where royal heads like Sulu Gambari can insist that those who happened not to believe in his pathway, our traditional ways of worshipping any deity whatever should be restricted.

“If you don’t believe in that deity that is your problem. Follow yours. Nobody has disturbed you.  Nobody has come over and said come and join us. No.

“Some people say we believe in giving honour to the goddess Osun. And we have a festival called Isese and we want to celebrate that festival.

“What is your goddam business to prevent them simply because you’re sitting on a throne?  And yet they get away with it time and time and time again they get away with it.

“I think it is about time to speak truth to one another. Not just to the government, but truth to the people.  It is about time that we move to full activity rather than reacting when our roofs have been insulted, desecrated.

The second demand Soyinka made was that religious bigots and those who applaud and preach violence should be restricted from getting visas.

“The diplomats assist the world by denying visas to violent politicians.  It happened during the last elections.  They even named names. They said we’re not going to give visas to this person, we are not going to give  All those who preach violence in politics, we’re not giving them visas.

“We say extend it to religious bigots extend it to those who preach and who applaud violence in the name of religion. Let’s ask all the embassies. Say, tell your governments to assist us. These people who live here. All these hypocrites go to these other places. They drink to their hearts’ content, debauch themselves anyhow and they come here in the name of piety they restrict our lifestyle, our own choices.

Finally, Soyinka then demanded that those who practise traditional religions should also be given annual holidays, a privilege that Christians and Muslims enjoy.

“It is about time we demanded on behalf of traditional religions an annual holiday like Islam and Christianity. We’ve had enough.  We’ve had enough of being second-class citizens in this nation. So equal time, equal space. We demand public holidays, demand in those states, local governments and the federal government. We want an annual public holiday. Those are our three demands in this home of the Muses,” Soyinka maintained.