By Anote
Ajeluorou
The chant became
insistent and took a life of its own the moment erudite scholar, Distinguished
Professor of English at New Orleans University, U.S., poet and special guest,
Prof. Niyi Osundare, gave voice to it last Friday. It was at the ‘Voyages
Around The Sahara Testaments’ colloquium organised in honour of poet
laureate, Mr. Tade Ipadeola, winner of The Nigeria Prize for Literature 2013,
at Drapers Hall, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Ibadan.
It was the first time a colloquium was
being held in honour of a winner of the prize that has spanned over 10 years
since its inception. The colloquium was specially convened by Dr. Sola
Olorunyomi of Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, with support
from Ipadeola’s other friends, Director, Communication Centre, UI, Ropo Ewenla,
Dr. Dami Ajayi, Dr. Niran Okeowo and Rotimi Babatunde among others started
planning the colloquium shortly after Ipadeola was announced winner on October
9, 2013.
‘Let us bring Back Nigeria!’ according to Osundare,
would be the fitting campaign or rallying point at this critical moment of
national consciousness, seeing that the country was already missing through
inept leadership and that it needed bringing back so it could be a good place for
the missing Chibok schoolgirls when they returned from the hands of their
abductors. Specifically, he said Nigerian was missing as a livable society on
all fronts and that it needed to be brought back from the brink of collapse it
seems inexorably headed.
The colloquium, which was on Ipadeola’s
winning poetry work, sought a robust conversation around the phenomenal poetic
journey Ipadeola has wrought and how exposing it through rigorous scholarship
would help in making sense of our world in relationship to the vanishing
Sahara. As would be expected, it threw up intense scholarly fireworks, with the
presence of eminent literary and humanistic scholars in attendance.
But as usual, Osundare brought his critical understanding
of Nigeria’s malaise to bear on the conversation. And just as another literary
scholar, Prof. Wole Soyinka in April gave voice and urgency to the now famous
‘Bring back our girls’ slogan that Dr. Oby Ezekwesili later amplified, Osundare
has added yet another twist for effect. For him and everyone present at the
colloquium, it wasn’t just President Goodluck Jonathan’s lukewarm book that
should be brought back, but Nigeria as well. Indeed, there is added urgency now
more than ever before to bring back Nigeria from the woods it has wandered even
as efforts were still ongoing to bring back the Chibok schoolgirls.
The accomplishment of Ipadeola’s poetic
genius in this award-winning collection has continued to amaze scholars who
continue to wonder how the lawyer-poet managed to evoke such poetic magic. For
Osundare and many others, such feat would be difficult for the current
educational set up, with its many lapses, lack of commitment, poor funding and
a myriad of problems, to throw up again.
For Osundare said, “As we celebrate this
book, let’s ask ourselves, as the country deteriorates, how many products from
our current school system can produce this kind of book? The tradition of
literary theory and criticism is dying today. No literary culture survives
without a robust educational culture. You need functioning libraries, good
teachers, students that are willing to read and learn. But what do we have
today? Ignorance is spreading today. This book is a commentary on Nigeria
today.
“We have not brought back the President’s
book yet; we’re still trying to bring back the girls. This book is affirmation
that it’s possible to create something good, something enduring in the land.
This has to be a regular pattern. Good education, solid literary culture is
what is needed. To achieve this, let us first bring back Nigeria!”
Osundare said he’d followed Ipadeola’s
literary trajectory, and how it has been very progressive. He said wWhen he got
The Sahara Testaments’ manuscript, he
nearly fell into the same trap as Prof. J.P. Clark, who confessed to reading it
all night non-stop until he finished it. But although Osundare didn’t abandon
his sleep for it, he didn’t sleep until he read a third of it, saying, “You
read it while sitting on the edge of your chair. Tade, this is a new voice
about Nigerian poetry. I’ve never read a book with this kind of intensity. This
book carries a lot of weight”.
Osundare, a first class scholar, one of those
who should never have been allowed to leave Nigerian shores for greener
pastures abroad, said there were fallouts about Nigeria’s academic conditions
that Ipadeola’s books evoke that need addressing. According to him, “We
shouldn’t only talk about the book but about the fallout. What we have here is
a compendium of metaphors. Could Ipadeola have produced this kind of panorama
of African history, philosophy and geography if he wasn’t exposed to history?
If there is any continent that needs history it is Africa!”
He also used the opportunity to look at the
essence of The Nigeria Prize for Literature and what he said could be its
continuing resonance for winners. “How many times do winners enjoy their fame?”
He asked, “It’s twice the value of the Caine Prize for African Writing. What
about the resonance? It’s the gravitas attached to it that matters. We have to
make sure that winners survive beyond its first three weeks of winning. A
literary culture is not created by the amount of prize money attached.”
ANOTHER special
guest, who served as chairman in place of Prof. Ayo Banjo and prize governing board
member, NLNG-sponsored The Nigeria Prize for Literature, Prof. Ben Elugbe,
noted, “People should be proud to win a prize when they write a book. But not
often is it remembered that a winner is a source of pride. As the prize’s board
member, our gathering here is evidence that it’s a mighty piece of work. We’ve
rarely seen that kind of oneness of voice regarding the work’s outstanding
nature to warrant its endorsement by Profs. JP Clark and Dan Izevbaye”.
In
2012, Elugbe disclosed that prize jury head, Prof. Abiola Irele, used superior
argument to win the prize for Chika Unigwe’s On Black Sisters Street. He, however, noted that while “Tade is
very proud to have won the prize, but the prize is very proud that Tade won it!”
Elugbe used the occasion to call on critics
to partake in the competition in the Critical Essay category, a prize designed
for academics and scholars, where a critical work published in a reputable
journal is entered for the prize worth N1 million. He noted that poor awareness
about this prize has not generated enough entries for it since initiating it
two years ago.
Director of Institute for African Studies,
Prof. Dele Layiwola, who also represented the Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan,
Prof. Isaac Adewole, expressed his pleasure in celebrating Ipadeola, whom he
said he knew from his toddler years at Fiditi Grammar School, where senior
Ipadeola taught him English and French. He recalled how Ipadeola senior told
him about renowned poet, Christopher Okigbo, an unusual poet, with amazing love
for football, how he left Ibadan for Fiditi to teach.
Layiwola said he carried Ipadeola as a
toddler, and described him as an inquisitive and active child, adding, “They
are a family of great poets; they have drums. When I learnt Tade was reading
law, I felt he strayed a bit; but he has come back. I know he still does bread
and butter law. But he’s still a poet.
“Now, Africa begins and ends here. By the
grace of providence, we will be able to celebrate more. It’s a great joy to see
that you excel. You didn’t only win the prize, you also allowed the prize to
win you!”
Then there was a brief interlude in which Jumoke
Verisimo read an excerpt from the collection “?????”
One of the jury members for the prize in 2013,
gender expert, feminism theorist and poet, Prof. Molara Ogundipe, also gave
testimony about Ipadeola’s outstanding work and the unanimity of the jury’s
verdict including that of the external assessor and Ghanaian poet, Prof. Kofi
Anyidoho. Ogundipe said it was educative and enlightening to have been a judge
of the poetry prize last year, adding that Ipadeola “you made us proud as
Africans, writers and critics”.
KEYNOTE speaker,
doyen of African literary criticism and Dean, Faculty of Humanities, Bowen
University, Prof. Dan Izevbaye delivered a paper titled ‘The Sahara Testaments: Poetry as Centre and Circumference’. In his
usual cadence, Izevbaye looked at the role of poetry in Nigeria at the present
time with Ipadeola’s collection as example, by looking at the intellectual
context of the collection, saying, “The book keep you. I was roped in by the
quality of the writing, the fascinating diction. This is creative writing of
high quality. The poet at this point is God’s rival in the creation story. This
is a candidate for the canon of Nigerian literature!
“There’s a blend of oral and literate,
western and middle easterner style of writing. this breath of vision and style
is Miltonic, so mush so as to say, Tade represents a poetic personality. This
poetry of the first water!”
Izevbaye also took his audience through
English literary history and how poetry came to be seen as the centre and
circumference of all knowledge and social relationships with the failing of
religion and economics to bring order. He said, “When there’s anarchy in the
polity and economic sphere, you turn to poetry for order and structure; when
there’s chaos it’s the poets we turn for vision and direction”.
The eminent critic argued that it was for
this reason that Chinua Achebe took his famous title ‘Things Fall Apart from W B Yeats, who had a vision of order. He
also restated Matthew Arnold’s position that with the rise of science and the
failing of religion, it was that poetry to people turned to get a grip on reality.
Ipadeola has also done the same thing with The
Sahara Testaments in his epic journey through the vast landscape of humans
and nature that the Sahara represents in the abysmal neglect it now suffers.
For Izevbaye, Ipadeola, having considered all
the African ideologues finally settles for Pan-Africanism, as the best
political ideology best suited for African in the race to resolving the
continent’s manifold conflicts.
According to Izevbaye, “The Sahara has been
marginalized in our literature. We have treated the Sahara that way not just
physically but culturally and spiritually. We don’t see it as anything of
value. It’s the same as the colonial error that posits that Africa has no
history. By omission, we have treated the Sahara that way. Tade overcame his physical
limitations about the Sahara and ventured into it. The knowledge of The Sahara Testaments does not come from
western tradition”.
Izevbaye also recalled Room 32 of English
Department of University of Ibadan, where poetry performance and reading used
to take place just as he said he wasn’t the performance type like Osundare, as
he best enjoys poetry in solitude. According to him, Ipadeola’s poetry “is of
great technical scale; it’s fluid; it flows. This text will find its way into
the canon of African literature. It will force our students, however lazy, to
read the poem. It gives enlightenment.
“History and literature have been
marginalized. Literature may not produce a car, but it has profound cultural
effect. Ipadeola’s poetry is both and contemporary in range. It’s a very
valuable addition to our intellectual condition”.
In his response, Ipadeola expressed his
gratitude for the honour done him, saying, “I never imagined in my life that
this was going to happen. This is a story unforgettable. I’m never going to
forget this!”
Poor funding for scholarship, education in
Nigeria
The colloquium
gathering also afforded the academics present to examine the state of funding
for scholarship and education in the country. They came up with a damning
verdict, which was singularly held for the poor showing in the educational
sector.
First to fire the first shot was Ogundipe,
who recently returned to the country, University of Port Harcourt specifically,
to teach after many years of teaching in universities in the U.S. and Ghana.
According to her, “Poor funding is a bane of scholarship in Nigeria. Government
has to put more money in education; condition in universities is terrible. Ghana
here puts 31 per cent of its budget in education; South Africa puts 39 per
cent, but Nigeria only manages 8-9 per cent of its total budget in education”.
She blamed Nigerian parents for not insisting
on quality education being given to their children. She also blamed student’s
poor attitude to learning, saying that the students hardly use the smartphones
the students carry for research work, as they hardly went to google education
to consult educational materials that are available for free online.
Apart from poor funding, Ogundipe also
criticised the attitude of Nigerians towards fellows like her who have taken
the hard decision to return to offer their scholarship and time to the
fatherland. According to her, “There’s exclusionary attitude towards those who
want to return from overseas to offer their services”.
Also, she found placing a ceiling on the
retirement age for academics ridiculous, arguing, “Retirement age for academics
is wrong. A teacher should teach till he or she drops dead! They have vast
private libraries students can consult for enriched scholarship”.
She also sued for the reintroduction of
history as a subject in schools, saying, Let’s fight for history”.
Izevbaye also joined the call for better
funding of education, arguing, “The present National Conference doesn’t have a
committee on education; it’s stuck somewhere on social issues. Nigerian
Universities Commission (NUC) that is supposed to monitor standards and quality
control should be interested in asking hard questions about university funding,
that investment in education is too low. But NUC is only interested in going
round in trips collecting money”.
Elugbe said even the so-called 25 per cent
supposedly allocated to education “that didn’t come to education doesn’t mean
that it went to something good to the people’ it simply disappeared into some
people’s pockets”.
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