To suggest that Soyinka suffered in prison is to detract from what he went through in solitary confinement. No word can describe the tedium of solitary confinement, especially as a prisoner of conscience. He tried to make the most of it within the limits of human endurance. Even death would have been a triumph at a point, as he became a living skeleton. His will was stretched but not broken. It is to his eternal credit that he never accepted a life under an insupportable system as a substitute for his freedom. Unknown to many, every dictator, military or civilian, since then, factors in Soyinka in all they do or fail to do. The book also leads us to the belief-world of the poet. Apart from his position as relates to God, which is widely known, it is plausible to say that the burden of loneliness led to some other discoveries. “Creation,” he says, “is admission of great loneliness. The mind is time - and on that flash he rested now the problem of Infinity at last. The mind is sole coefficient of time and space.” An academic of distinction, Soyinka’s description of the life of insects and animals, in their ecological splendour, within the prison wall in Kaduna, is superb. One must praise him for having the vocabulary to do all that - a register of some sort for school children. In summary, the book reveals the tribulations that are sometimes the lot of those ‘who are allied and committed to the unfettered principle of life’, for which Soyinka is a living example. His public spiritedness is exceptional. He deserves all the accolades, the encomiums we shower on him on the occasion of his 80th birthday. The Man Died in the contemporary Nigeria, what lessons? First, we say ‘never again’ to military rule. It is a curse for any people created by the Almighty to be ruled by guns. In the contemporary world, military rule is tantamount to terrorism because what it seeks to do is to drive fear into the populace as a prelude to domination. The military, as it is the practice in developed climes, must subordinate itself to all civil authorities. The army must never be used for political ends by the President. The misuse of the police and armed forces in 1964/65 elections played a major role in the incursion of the military into governance and the attendant wanton depradations. The rule of law must become an article of faith, any infraction attracting condign sanctions from a truly independent and apolitical judiciary. No one should ever keep quiet in the face of injustice or tyranny. Neither race, tribe, colour nor religion should henceforth define our lives but the content of our character. Those in power must be committed to the welfare of the citizens. Congratulations to my intellectual avatar, Wole Soyinka, on this grand, momentous occasion of his 80th birthday. Soyombo, a media practitioner, sent this piece via densityshow@ yahoo
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 09:01:28 +0000
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