For Osundare, deserving celebration at Lead City

The fourth Niyi Osundare International Festival was an impressive event that drew the best from far and near.

I am one of your grandsons sir,” said Joe Ushie as he bowed to greet Emeritus Professor Ayo Banjo at the spacious foyer of the International Conference Centre, Lead City University, Ibadan, Oyo State on Wednesday, May 29.

Ushie, a Professor of English at the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State was introducing himself to the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan who had just stepped inside the foyer alongside poet and academic, Professor NiyiOsundare.

“Prof is your son,” Ushie, a mentee of Osundare continued in explanation to Banjo who just smiled as the academic continued with his introduction. “He [Osundare] is your son and I am his son. So, you are our grandfather; I am one of your grandsons,” he said to hearty laughter from the duo as they made their way into the hall.

The occasion was the fourth edition of the NiyiOsundare International Poetry Festival and Ushie, who had driven all the way from Uyo alongside his friend, Dr James Oupiliya of the University of Calabar, was obviously excited to meet the Emeritus Professor and his mentor, Osundare.  But the academic whose 60th birthday was marked with a conference earlier in May wasn’t the only excited participant.

Majority of the guests were also excited to see Osundare whom they had come to honour and celebrate at the festival with the theme ‘Literature and Governance: Finding the Convergence for National Development’.

Nobel Laureate in waiting

Vice Chancellor of the host university, Lead City, Professor Aderemi Adeyemo set the ball rolling with his welcome address.  He noted that the occasion was to celebrate excellence and not frivolity, adding that Osundare was a world-class writer, dramatist and poet. “Indeed, we are honoured to host him and the contingent of scholars who are here with us,” the VC said whilst also highlighting the transformative powers of poetry.  Adeyemo added that Lead City is keenly interested in the arts, hence the existence of very dynamic departments of Theatre Arts and English.

The vice-chancellor further acknowledged Osundare’s illustrious scholarship and inimitable poetry, disclosing that the eminent Professors Banjo and Dan Izevbaye, highly rate him. Adeyemo’s conclusion that Osundare is the next likely Nobel Laureate from Nigeria and a leading voice of the voiceless drew generous applause from the audience.

Delightful poetry,

stirring prose

Next was chair of the occasion, Emeritus Professor Banjo who began by thanking the organisers, Messers Tunde Laniyan and Dele Morakinyo, for having involved him in the festival over the years. “Nothing has given me greater pleasure than seeing NiyiOsundare excel; we are working until the ultimate prize is achieved,” he said.

Professor Banjo, who is also Chair, Advisory Board of the Nigeria LNG-sponsored Nigeria Prize for Literature, further recalled how circumstances forced the author of ‘Songs from the Marketplace’, ‘Village Voices’ and ‘The Eye of the Earth’ to migrate abroad. This, he added, “has turned out to be a blessing for him and Nigeria. He is back home ever so often; he has kept touch with Nigeria and the advantage of this is that he takes close snapshots of Nigeria and takes wider shots. After sometimes when you live outside your country, your imagination begins to play tricks on you but Niyi keeps abreast of developments and is fully aware of events. This has helped him produce for us the most delightful poetry and stirring prose. We are very proud of NiyiOsundare; the Department of English, University of Ibadan is most proud of him and I’m sure the best is yet to come.”

Professor Banjo lauded the festival and its spirit. He regretted that Nigeria is “wasting a lot of money concentrating on physical development while neglecting education and the arts. Education is what this country needs badly; education is falling to pieces in this country and it is a good thing that Niyi Osundare doesn’t want to give up on Nigeria.”

He commended Lead City for hosting the festival and noted that with keynoter, Dr Tunji Olaopa’s Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP) also in the city, Ibadan was indeed the intellectual capital of Nigeria.

The three other speakers after Professor Banjo also had praised for Osundare. Head, Department of English, University of Ibadan and a former student of the honouree, Professor Ayo Ogunsiji said Osundare introduced him to stylistics in the late 1980s. “Back then, if you missed any class, it wasn’t Professor Osundare’s class. We had a saying in our circle then that if you go to UI and you didn’t pass through Osundare, you didn’t go to UI. Osundare possesses multiple voices, and if you want to approach his writings from a single direction, you won’t get to really appreciate it. Happily, the ultimate is yet to come; there is no other Nobel Laureate in waiting apart from him,” he said.

For Dr Oupiliya, the festival offered the unique opportunity “to have face to face dialogue with Professor Osundare,” while Professor Gabriel Osoba of the Lagos State University, attributed his academic success to God and Osundare.

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Poet of the people

Executive Vice Chairman of the ISGPP and keynote speaker, Dr. Tunji Olaopa, began his presentation on ‘Literature and Governance: Finding the Critical Convergence for National Development’ by commending the festival organisers for conceiving “a worthy and annual event that celebrates one of the towering literati in Nigeria” and their efforts “to see that this event continues to highlight the glowing achievements and contributions of this icon to national development in Nigeria.”

He continued by noting that the honouree “is not just another poet that builds a reputation on polyphony, alliterations and iambic meters that promise rhetorical flourishes. When he writes, Nigeria looms large in his memory. And that gives a strident voice to his verses which bristle with indignation and fiery assertions about what is right, what is wrong, where we are, where we were, and where we should be. He is a poet for the nation.”

Olaopa thereafter proceeded to highlight the relationship between literature and the human society, especially nationality. He acknowledged literature’s power to change and foment social movement in the same measure that it can preserve the status quo. The keynoter however held that Osundare’s poetry is patriotic and that poetry “becomes an arrow in his hand hurled against all and everything wrong with Nigeria”

He added that “With his poems, NiyiOsundare is constantly in the consciousness of Nigerians, but more critical is that he constantly calls out those who have decided to steal the commonweal and impoverish our collective aspiration to make Nigeria a worthy country to live in.”

Referencing Osundare’s acclaim as a poet of the people, Olaopa said this simply implies that the poet has a deep and nuanced understanding of the governance dynamics of the state. “Osundare’s poetic consciousness is that of subversion. He is essentially the signifier of a collective cultural and national consciousness that demands redress from those who would pound us into the ground,” the keynote speaker said, adding that the celebrating Osundare is a unique opportunity to rethink the place and the role of the poet in the Nigerian society. He urged the government to provide the enabling environment for artists of all shades “to generate alternative visions and aspirations that can keep the nation on a steady path towards progress.”

Plucking change

Responding before the stage was yielded to performers, Professor Osundare thanked all for the honour given to him. He especially thanked the trio of Professors Banjo, Izevbaye and OyinOgunba, stating that all that he had attained was because they offered their shoulders for him to stand on. He recalled how Professor Banjo helped him present his first scholarly paper, ‘TM Aluko: An Evaluative Stylistic Analysis’ at a conference in the 70s and that he has not given half of the support he got from his mentors.

The poet, whose anger with the dysfunctional state of affairs in Nigeria was not far from the surface, expressed worry over the undue emphasis on science and technology in the country, noting that there was unity among all disciplines. He also lamented that academic excellence and character were being jettisoned.  “This country will not change until we change it; we have to pluck the change and not wait for it,” he said while commending Pro-Chancellor of Lead City University, Professor JideOwoeye, for citing a world-class institution in Ibadan.

Some of those that provided light entertainment on day one of the two-day events were nine-year-old Azeez Abubakar Enitan from College of Education Staff School, Ikere-Ekiti; Jumoke Owoola, who read a poem Ere Osupa- Love Poem in Ekiti dialect, a student of Lead City and performance poet, Akeem Lasisi, accompanied by Funmi Aluko and Edaoto.