15th July, 2013
Abiodun Onafuye/ Abeokuta
Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has urged Nigerian students, especially those residing in violence-prone areas of the North, not to be discouraged by the activities of the Boko Haram sect.
The Nobel Laureate also charged President Goodluck Jonathan and state governors to create conducive environment for Nigerians to access qualitative education.
The over 200 students who were selected throughout the country were
pruned down to 79 representing the age of Soyinka.
The event, tagged: “Memoirs of our future”, which also included an essay competition, was organised by a Lagos based multimedia company, Zmirage, in conjunction with the Ogun State Government.
While advising students not to be dissuaded by certain negative things
in the country, Soyinka urged them to draw inspiration from the life
of a 16-year-old Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the
head on October 9, 2012 by Taliban fighters over her campaign for
girl-child education in Pakistan.
Malala had on Friday addressed the maiden United Nations Youth
Assembly where she called on world leaders to provide free education
to all children, and further vowed not to relent in her campaign.
According to him, “ We must not allow ourselves to be discouraged. And the fact that people are still going to schools in those areas violence-prone areas of northern Nigeria shows that we should not be discouraged. You are not a complete human being if you are not educated, schooled or cultured.
Speaking further, the Nobel Laureate debunked rumours that he graduated from the University College Ibadan with a third class. Soyinka said he made a Second Class Upper degree.
He explained that he had kept silent over the years on the matter but
decided to open up for the sake of the children as a mark of respect for them.
Soyinka said there was no mystery behind his grey hair.
On his aspiration in life, the literary giant disclosed that he would
have loved to become an architect, musician or a pilot,if not for
faith that changed the course of his life.
“I would have loved to be an architect, or a musician, but not an amateur but a trained one, and if I have the opportunity to sit behind a pilot in the plane, I would have loved to be an airplane pilot. When I left school, I wanted to be a journalist. I actually sat for an
examination to be absorbed in Daily Time as a reporter, but I was the
last to submit because I wrote several sheets of paper and at the end
I was told that I wrote a short story and not a news story. So, I was
not taken. Thank goodness, I did not become a journalist,” he added.
Earlier at the Government House, Oke Igbein, Abeokuta, the State
governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun urged the students not to relent
in their educational pursuits, as he described Soyinka as “a world citizen,” who the participants in the essay competition must emulate.
He commended the organizers and restated the commitment of the state
government towards supporting the celebration of the life of the Nobel
Laureate.
Amosun later presented prizes to the winner of this year’s essay
competition, Motolani Akinpelu from Oladapo Alayande School of
Science, Oke Bola, Ibadan, Oyo State.
The second position was won by Cosmos Adedero Andrew of Mount Saint
Gabriel Secondary School, Markudi, Benue State while the duo of Miss
Adebisi Oluwatomisin of Leeds City High School, Ibadan and Miss
Chukwuwinke Nora from Dority International School, Aba, Abia State
came third.
Odiakosa Alfred of St. Charles Secondary School Onitsha, Anambra State, took the fifth position.