In whatever endeavor we pursue in life, we inevitably encounter both victories and defeats. Losing, in essence, is not inhumane; however, harboring bitterness in defeat is what I consider truly inhumane. Furthermore, just because someone has bested me in competition does not make them my enemy.
Allow me to share a personal anecdote: During my candidacy for the presidency of the Faculty of Arts Students Association at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, two individuals fervently supported me. They approached me with a plan to tear down my opponent’s posters under the guise of attending nighttime study sessions in the faculty. I expressed gratitude for their support and explained why such actions were unnecessary. I reminded them that the true prize is not winning the election but rather having a capable individual serve as president. They were not my enemies; they had invested time and resources in their campaign efforts, just as I had. The meat of the matter is that I was able to guide and restrain my supporters, ensuring we conducted ourselves with dignity and respect. Of course, WE WON!
Toxicity is a detrimental character trait. Toxic individuals rarely find success in life. It is only a toxic person who projects aggression and hatred onto others. Similarly, it is only a toxic individual who seeks to dismantle years of hard work and achievement out of anger or disappointment.
Let us, even for a moment, forget about his astounding level of academic brilliance and focus on another unique aspect of him: Prof. Oluwole Akinwande Soyinka is an embodiment of humility and simplicity. “OKUNRIN OGUN, ENI OGUN!”
His densely grey hirsute head is a pretext to his startling level of shrewdness, a textbook definition of perspicacity and creativity. Omo Soyinka’s photographic memory and his ineluctable ears, as legend holds it, have combined to gift him a gripping prowess for scripting pieces that are compelling reading.
Wole Soyinka is the horseman of captivatingly fluent and flowing words who is not fixated on excessive courtesy; whether you genuflect or stand to talk, he requests you sit, and so on. He is truly the interpreter of the understandable voices of the masses and the corrector of the nattering naysayers who are still suffering from their losses in the last elections. In Mr Macaroni’s voice, awon “omo k’omo!”
Taken together, here is a man who neither needs to defend himself nor requires us to defend him; his works and actions readily speak for themselves. In this life that we live, I don’t know of another; Soyinka is a made man! There must be more to carrying Kuti’s DNA!
#ADiSA
(OmO LiLE)
