By Anote Ajeluorou
Distinguished Professor of English at New Orleans
University, U.S. and award-winning poet Prof. Niyi Osundare was the toast on
Sunday in Ibadan, when the chairman of University Press Plc and Kakanfo Inn, Dr.
Lalekan Are and his wife held a special luncheon in his honour for being the
winner of Nigeria National Merit Award (NNMA) 2014. Many distinguished
academics and writers turned out in large numbers to celebrate Osundare’s excellence
as a writer and public commentator.
Among those present
were two Emeritus professors and Osundare’s teachers Ayo Banjo and Ayo Bamgbose
(Bamgbose also being a former winner of the academic award), Ambassador Olusola
Shanu, Profs. Dan Izevbaye, Labode Poopola, Agboola Adesonoye, Segun Ojewuyi,
Dr. Kunbi Olasope, Kolade Mosuro, Tade Ipadeola, Joop Berkhout, Ropo Iwenla, Femi
Morgan and many others. The event was held at Kakanfo Inn.
As always, just as
the accolades came fast for Osundare so too were the lamentations for a country
that once flourished and its universities that were once the pride of the
African continent that attracted scholars and seasoned teachers from all over
the world. Osundare likened what has happened to his country to the current
political situation in his Ekiti State since the emergence of the enfant
terrible, Mr. Segun Fayose.
“Ekiti of those days
used to be the one of mental infrastructure,” Osundare said. “Today, it’s one
of ‘stomach infrastructure’”.
But first he
commended the organiser of the luncheon in his honour, Are whom he said “does
things in almost non-Nigerian ways; it was how the colonial period was, very
efficient. One woman sat in England and ruled half of the world with such
mental accuracy. I wish Nigeria is being administered the way Kakanfo Inn is
being managed. This is a celebration of excellence, which Are is. He has an
agile mind and tells you how it is – forthright!”
Osundare then
recalled his days a student at University of Ibadan, with his teachers and the
drilling they went through in their hands for them to come out excelling in
life, their austere, cerebral lifestyle and how they dreamed of modeling their
own lives after them.
According to
Osundare, “No week passes without us writing essays for Izevbaye and Banjo.
It’s not so anymore. I’m so happy they are still alive today. They are my
inspiration. I was in Banjo’s class on Stylistics; it was my foundation. I told
myself I would study Stylistics further. There’s no way I could fail to pass on
to the kind of virtues and benediction I got from banjo and Bamgbose; they
never came to class late. They taught me the grammar of values. Our country,
our universities once knew better times.
“We will need to go
back and see what went wrong with our universities, our country. Our students
are not really bad; it’s the system that cheats our students. Nigeria helped
me; I believe in the Nigeria, Yoruba I grew up. I don’t know if I’d grown up in
Nigeria today whether I would have achieved the little I’ve done. Integrity and
hard work were the values that were preached to us in our days. I consider
myself a lucky man, an absolutely lucky man. The achievement is not mine alone
to share”.
EARLIER, Are said Osudare’s winning the NNMA award was on
merit strictly based on his scholarship and devoid of any political leaning or
geographical spread. According to the onetime academic turned businessman, “Nigeria
is yet to have 70 people being conferred with the honour. It’s on merit and not
geographical spread and not political. It’s our equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
Only Osundare won it last year. The assessors are people of integrity. It’s for
the works you have done that speaks for you”.
Banjo, who chaired
the event also said, “Ibadan is the intellectual capital of Nigeria. I’ve
watched Osundare’s progress since he entered University of Ibadan. He became a
budding writer and afterwards to a celebrity. We’re here because Nigeria has
made a claim to him. Osundare is unique among our writers. He has written some
enchanting love poems; his nature poems are authentic and charming.
“He’s written a lot
of satire on his country, Nigeria. He has a habit of producing thunderous
essays about Nigeria; he has a voice that is distinctive among his peers. He
doesn’t follow literary fashion. His is distinctive poetry that is accessible.
He’s firmly of the Nigerian soil and has gone abroad to do exploits. He has won
a lot of awards, but this one is the icing on eh cake. It’s not tainted with
all types of trivialities. If government had any hand in it Osundare would
probably not have won it given that he does not spare them. He’s a charming
person and he’s very respectful. He listened to my lectures at a time; now I
have to study him. That’s the joy of being a teacher. We’re waiting for the
Nobel Prize from him!”
Amb. Shanu said he sneaked
from his sick bed just to see Osundare whose reputation he said preceded him.
Also, the fact that Osundare has been to Harvard University, a university he
attended some 62 years ago, “and the trail of being a back man; I pray Osundare
continues to be our hero”.
Another of his
former teacher, Bamgbose also commended Are for his knack for celebrating
achievers that are not tainted with the rot that Nigeria has become known in
recent times. As he put it, “There’s something beautiful about what Are is
doing. He never left his roots – academics. He derives joy in seeing the
progress of those in academia. Osundare was my student at UI; he went on to
distinguish himself.
“Poetry is a genre
many students are afraid of. When it comes to poetry, many students are scared.
What you interpret may mean something different from intended meaning. But
Osundare has made poetry something reachable, something interesting. He sees
poetry like performance. Added to that is that Osundare is rooted in his
culture. He defers to us his teachers. It makes us proud and we are proud of
you.
“We ought to commend
Osundare for being able to speak truth to power, as Americans say. That’s
because he’s not looking for appointment; he’s not that kind of person”.
Poopola praised Osundare’s
humour and how he has coined ‘unarrestibility from ‘impunity plus immunity’,
twin evils that make nonsense of the rule of law and a sane society.
Adesonoye said he
and Osudnare are advocates clean English and shared the same views on the new
generation of poets who turn bland and badly written prose into poetry and
lament their inability to win prizes as a result. “To be a good poet,” he said,
“you ought to have mastered good English prose. Poetry is prose distilled into
refined lines. Most poets just break bad prose into lines. Osundare and I have
a passion for clean English.”
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