Brother Wole And The Emilokan Dance

Image:pexel.com

Pardon me, it's Professor Wole Soyinka. Who else? The activist whose blood boiled in 1965 in Ibadan where he invaded a broadcasting station to stop the announcement of the winner of what he considered to be a fraudulent elections. He was 35 years old then. The same man, now an elder statesman in 2023, turned a defender of a more dangerous and sophisticated variety of the undesirable political actors and their malfeasance which Nigeria has been battling to get rid of for nearly sixty years after independence. 

Political corruption was (and still is) so pervasive and glaring that in 1965 brother Wole invaded a radio station and forced the broadcaster at gun point to announce what he thought was the right results. He did not wait for the judges to decide; he took the law into his hands.

He was an activist fighting for a better Nigeria - not an uncouth, dangerous youth with fascist tendencies. Brother Wole was right to be frustrated and angry in 1965 but his approach wasn't only uncouth and intimidating; he was an angry youth with a gun to the head of an innocent radio broadcasting staff - possibly an illegal firearm. How will brother Wole judge the violent activities of young Wole Soyinka in 1965 in 2023?

In 1965 Wole Soyinka, a hot blooded youth, he was very frustrated, angry and hopeless because, by his own interpretation, the country was headed for the destination we find ourselves today - hopelessly poor and badly managed by corrupt political criminals with their criminal structures and poor spirited hangers-on. In that hopelessness young Wole Soyinka did not only lack grace and refinement in his approach to venting his frustration; he employed violence. In 1965 Wole Soyinka was angry but there was no social media to use to manage the venting of the swell of anger rising inside him, therefore, he did what he thought was the right thing to do. I'm not sure if anyone thought of that act of violence as fascistic at the time.

In the run up to and during the 2023 elections some Nigerians died, others intimidated, maimed, ethnically profiled and threatened with violence. Their only crime was trying to exercise their constitutional and human rights to vote for a candidate of their choice in a general election in their country. The unfortunate and unnecessary loss of Nigerian lives in Port Harcourt, Lagos and elsewhere didn't move a needle of brother Wole's emotions. He couldn't bring himself to even acknowledge that innocent Nigerians lost their lives in the violence engineered by the people he seems to be speaking for. The problem for brother Wole, which he very urgently set out to address, was that "fascism" existed in the Obidient movement. He complained about the opinion of Senator Datti Baba-Ahmed on the constitutionality of the process which declared the purported winner. 

Conducting fraudulent elections occasioned by grand vote larceny coupled with tribalized voter suppression must be declared moribund and every effort made to eliminate such acts from our electoral processes. Nigeria is too big for one party to dictate how they wish our leaders should be elected. To robustly demand that Nigeria deserve the conduct of free, fair and credible elections is no longer the aspiration of brother Wole, it appears. But for generations of younger Nigerians a new, refreshed Nigeria is the vision. He was consciously and loudly silent on the troubling incidents in Lagos where Nigerians from certain parts of the country were threatened with violence if they were found to have voted for a party other than the ones they were being forced to vote for. 

By brother Wole's interpretation the 2023 election went quite orderly, free, fair and credible. There was nothing done which was out of the ordinary. Months after the disaster called an election brother Wole flew from Dubai to take up the megaphone on the propaganda bus. Sadly, brother Wole overestimated his value, especially to the enthusiastic population of Nigerian youth worldwide. They were promised a free and fair elections in 2023 and they are eager for the change as promised which befits the era of social media, real political change and economic freedom. In that interview, brother Wole announced to Nigerians that he belongs to the "Agbado" generation. The destroyers of Nigeria.

Professor Wole Soyinka's "disregard for African authoritarian leadership and his disillusionment with Nigerian society as a whole" is documented in the parody King Baabu (performed 2001; published 2002). What is responsible for the about turn in the man who once sort political change through violence to the man who now looks the other way, especially during an election of huge epochal scale? Has the man died in him? Perhaps, it should be repeated here that the younger generations of Nigerians have moved on from the literary arena the professor once dominated. His views are, for lack of more subtle word, moribund - in their last legs.

Brother Wole, a playwright and professor of literature was found wanting in giving a proper meaning and application to the word "fascism" in a televised interview. Fascism is a very strong word but he used it casually to describe young, frustrated, cheated, deprived, deceived, hopeless Nigerians who were fighting for a better Nigeria. Did the professor momentarily lose his skills in the use of the English language or did he try to manipulate public opinion hoping to deepen the division of the country.

Prior to the elections, Nigeria was at a crossroads. At the time of brother Wole's interviews, Nigeria had taken a turn for the right path to political decency, social regeneration, and freedom from the "Agbado" generational inertia and the straight path to a new free and fair country which will work for "the many and not just the few" quoting  the Rt.Hon. Jeremy Corbyn MP.