Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has been given a lifetime achievement award for his service to humanity. This is just as an institute was named after him at the University of Ibadan (UI).
The Prestige, Integrity, Nobility and Knowledge (PINK) Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Professor Soyinka on Tuesday at the Wole Soyinka Theatre in UI during the plays that marked the end of the university’s 2024 Convocation and 76th Foundation Day ceremonies.
The convocation play was based on Wole Soyinka’s new play, ‘Canticles for a Pyre Foretold’.
The organisers of the PINK Award disclosed that the recognition was given to Soyinka for his contributions to knowledge, literature and society.
The initiator of the PINK Award, Dr Veronica Okei, described Soyinka as a living legend and a colossal blessing to Nigeria.
The president of Women Arise for Change Initiative and promoter of the PINK Award, Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin, stated that PINK, now in its eleventh year, is a platform for celebrating achievers, adding that no human rights activist has had the kind of impact Soyinka has had in the last 60 years.
“Professor Soyinka is an enigma, a man of the people, and a man who has become eternal in text. And for years to come, we will keep preaching about him,” she said.
Soyinka, commenting on the award presented, stated that while he appreciated what the PINK acronym means, pink is not his favourite colour.
While appreciating Women Arise and PINK for the recognition, he added, “I will try my best to celebrate privately with pink champagnes.”
Also at the event, the vice chancellor of the university, Professor Kayode Adebowale, emphasised that the Nobel laureate, who has brought many honours and recognitions to the university, means a lot to the ivory tower, adding that Soyinka’s name is synonymous with the university.
The VC said that the university’s art theatre, named after Professor Wole Soyinka in 2018, has been a place where all the plays of the playwright have been performed over and over again.
He revealed that Soyinka has named the university as one of the organisations that will manage his Abeokuta residence alongside the Wole Soyinka Foundation.
The VC also revealed that the university will establish the Wole Soyinka Institute “where all the works and anything that has to do with the playwright will be studied.”
The convocation play, in line with the ‘Canticles’, depicts the life of the young lady, Deborah Emmanuel, the second-year student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, who was stoned and burnt to death for blaspheming Islam.
The play also touched on child marriage as is practiced in northern Nigeria, and other related extreme practices in the country in the name of religion and spirituality.
In the convocation play manual, Soyinka commented on his new play ‘Canticles for a Pyre Foretold’. He stated that the ‘Canticles’ is a narrative of the logical end of religious tolerance, where it becomes unremarkable to kill, instigate killing, and the likes.
“However, the ‘Canticles’ is a question thrown at the human claim to rational existence and a fundamentalist pact of solidarity with the sanctity of every human life,” he added.
Giving more details about the play, the director, Dr Tunde Awosanmi, noted that the play resides in the category of realistic satires. The play, rooted in religion and spirituality, he added, is based on the idea that “all earth is home of the deities.”
He stated Africa and other continents have experienced the bitter misapprehension of the earth, especially in the hands of gospellers, envangelisers, and enforcers of guests and visiting faiths in many lands.
“Soyinka’s ‘Canticles’ audaciously challenges all pompous faiths of the world. Religion ought to be bastions and sanctuaries of humanity, tolerance and stoicism,” he added.
