Obafest: Poetic celebration of a scholar, playwright

For two days, Ilorin played host to the maiden Olu Obafemi Poetry Festival (Obafest 2017) in honour of the distinguished playwright. BIOLA AZEEZ reports the occasion that brought poetry and drama to the fore of public appreciation.

THE widely held opinion in the literary world about poetry is that it captures ane even encapsulates the totality of human existence. Thus, the significance of poetry and the place of poets in the society were brought to the fore at the two-day Olu Obafemi Poetry Festival, tagged Obafest 2017, and which was held Ilorin, Kwara State. The event brought both young and old, lettered and unlettered, politicians and academic, among others, together under one roof, with the sole aim of using poetry as a weapon to address issue of corruption in the country.

OBAFEST 2017, which was organised in honour of a distinguished professor of English and Dramatic Literature and president, Nigerian Academic of Letters, Professor Olu Obafemi, was directed by Ebika Anthony of the Poetry Enclave (POEN), Ibadan.

In his introductory remark, Anthony said Obafest, in honour of  Obafemi which will be held annually, is a celebration of poetry and life, with the theme, Poetry Against Corruption.

“Today, poetry will drive round the city of words, and the echo of poetry will get to the  marketplace, the town square, the parliament, even the barracks and social centres, and whip the stiff buttocks of corruption.

“OBAFEST is intended to contribute to the uplift of performance poetry and also add more value to the very big and admirable profile and status of Olu Obafemi”, he said.

The honouree, Obafemi, who was also celebrating his birthday, used the occasion to enthralled guests with the profound substance of poetry and the nature of festival in his speech, entitled, Poetry as therapy. According to him, the popular and conventional understanding of festivals is that “a festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect of that community and its religion or tradition”.

Professor Obafemi also said that festivals that focus on cultural or ethnic topics also seek to inform community members of their traditions: “the involvement of elders sharing stories and experience provides a means for unity among families, groups, communities and macro societies. So, it is for festivals of poetry that are held on in our society nowadays.

“These expectations and anticipations for festivals and in relation to my poetic engagements give me the initial reluctance in accepting this honour of a festival around my poetry, as I do not consider myself one of the major poets that deserve being celebrated”, he said.

Speaking with journalists at the event, Obafemi elucidated on how poetry could be used to address issue of corruption in the country.

“All serious art forms aim to achieve to entertain, give delight, and to also give instruction about where society should go. There are a lot of ways poetry can be used to make impact on the society. First, there is performance poetry which can get to the public place. In that form, poetry can have societal effect. Then also some of the works I have done or by others like Niyi Osundare, public poetry can be made possible available in the media. Many years now, poets were anxious to reach out to the audience and thus used the media to bring simple popular poetry to the consciousness of the masses. Of course also, poetry as thought in schools whereby they play good roles in the educational process. Works of a lot of great poets in the world have been used to educate the minds of students, to regenerate the soul of man, to bring replenishment into our lives and therefore plant the seed of growth in the society. Through these, poetry can be a point of social instruction, attraction, illumination and enlightenment

“As I said, no art form itself can fight social ills. It has to be used by people. First, people in government must be interested in poetry. A lot of our poets in the past in Africa, like Sedar Senghor and in Nigeria, Macaulay, were poets. First, we must understand the power of poetry, its usability, instrument for democracy. Government itself must consciously develop interest in literature, humanity, culture, arts, power of culture both as a transformer of economy as an instruments to humanise our society before they can understand the relevance of arts and instrumentality of poetry to address social problems and to bring redemption and social regeneration of our country.”

On his assessment of current anti-corruption efforts of the present government, Professor Obafemi said “the very fact that there is a political will to attack and address corruption is a good starting point. And I believe that If the war is vigorously pursued with clear-cut policies, it will go a long way. Don’t forget that this is something that has been on for so long, and it’s going to be fought by those powerful people, who  will struggle to make sure the war does not work.

“The government itself must understand that it is not a simple battle. The government must not take it light in the sense of just mere sloganeering. It must be structured and put in place implementable laws that can definitely stipulate appropriate punishments for those that who are caught, not that certain millions of dollars or naira have been collected.

“The psychology of the society must be re-orientated. For instance, when you go out there, you still find police asking for money from vehicle owners and fireman is still looking for friendly fire… And Customs are doing their own thing. So, it is an in-depth anaemia that will have to be dealt with systematically. I don’t even believe that whistle-blowing thing is the thing. I think we need to settle down to bring out concrete structure and concrete laws to fasten the process and I don’t also mean subscribing to undue process. We should use due process. We can carve out within the constitution, strategies and mechanism which will fasten the process of bringing corrupt people to book. So it’s a very serious business.”

While taking on the executive and the legislative arms of present government and the need to be in harmony to fight corruption, the erudite scholar said the two arms are still working at cross purposes.

“Their understanding is crisscrossing. What we need to do is for each arm of government to understand its own powers and be in complementary relationship, such that when the lawmakers bring out the laws to fight corruption, the executive implements it. Right now, even within their own structures, the Nigerian nation has not developed enough confidence to believe that they can do it. Either at National Assembly or the presidency, I see accusation and counter accusations and the corrupt people are in the government, both at the Assembly and the executive in various ways. But that doesn’t stop them from developing political will to work together to fight, not just corruption but the economy. Until you build a virile economy in which corruption becomes unnecessary, it will still be with us. Government and all its arms must understand that this is a major fight, an enduring cankerworms that have eaten deep into the very fabric of the nation.”

Describing his feelings on the occasion, the author of the play, Naira has no gender, said that he felt humbled, overwhelmed, “seeing young students addressing serious problems of society with such enthusiasm, passion and compassion. There is hope for future generation.”

Enchanting colour was added to the event by secondary school students of University of Ilorin secondary school, Roemichs International School, Ilorin and St. Anthony’s secondary school, Ilorin, among others, captivated audience with their performance poetry performance, which dwelled on war against corruption and unity among the country’s diverse ethnic groups and tribes.

The icing on the cake was reading of poems by one of the country’s literary giants in the country, Okinba Lanko, also known as Professor Femi Osofisan of the University of Ibadan, who condemned impunity and corruption in government.

The climax of the event was a stage play by members of Ajon Players, the drama group, formed by Obafemi, which passed message of love, unity and harmony in the country, which was well brought out by the young and energetic performers.

Professor Charles Bodunde of the English department of the University of Ilorin, who delivered the keynote address, said corruption is certainly one of the most destructive diseases of the Third World.

“The World Bank report of 1997 simply did described it as “ the abuse of public office for private gain”. It is if course more complex than this. This phenomenon takes over every fabric of the society and manipulates the economic, moral, social and political estates for its own gains. When one talks of corruption types, the list is endless: economic corruption, moral corruption, social corruption, and political corruption. There are specific types: extortion, kickback, fees to youth gang members for protection (reinvented creatively in Wole Soyinka’s The Beatification of Area Boys) entry fee for securing job, graft, advance fee fraud (419), election rigging, cyber crime and so on”.

The immediate past governor of Ondo State and immediate past chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s Governorship Forum, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, who was a special guest at the event, expressed displeasure that ideology is relegated behind among political parties in Nigeria, saying this does not augur well for development of democracy in the country.

He bemoaned a situation where parties exist without clear-cut ideologies that can distinctly identify them.  The politician advised on the need to redefine the politics being operated in the country through re-engineering of ideologies.

The former governor, while noting that there are challenges both at present and future that the country must meet to attain development, charged the literary world to be a major contributor in efforts to meet the challenges.

He said members of the world should, through creative writings, encourage the government and the people to embrace positive change that is desirable for the development of the country.

Mimiko also expressed concern about abandonment of books for internet facilities which he said is the trend among young generation of the country today.

The former governor who noted that the young ones today do not have the patience the older generation had in reading books because of the internet that serve them as alternative, said this may present a challenge in producing geniuses.

He however urged the literary leaders, other scholars and other stakeholders to rise to the occasion to ensure that the future in the educational field is assured.