Atiku waxes lyrical in birthday tribute to Soyinka

Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president, has penned a lyrical message in celebration of Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate, at 90.

Soyinka celebrates his 90th birthday on July 13.

In honour of the literary giant, Atiku, in a tweet on his X account, incorporated some of Soyinka’s best-known titles into a poetic birthday message.

“To truly celebrate Prof Wole Soyinka, You Must Set Forth at Dawn. But that would be after a Telephone Conversation,” the tweet reads.

“The man of Ake, despite all the Trials of Brother Jero, and at a prime age of 90, remains a virile hunter in our Forest of a Thousand Daemons. Neither Death nor the King’s Horseman has stopped The Interpreter from his bountiful Kongi’s Harvest and the Chronicles of his happy life on Earth. Yet, The Man Lives, even in this Season of Anomy.”

On Friday, President Bola Tinubu renamed the national theatre in Lagos after the Nobel Laureate.

The art facility was re-christened the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and the Creative Arts.

Soyinka is a playwright, poet, and novelist with global acclaim. He was the first African to win the Nobel Literature Prize.

When he won the laureate in 1986, the organisers described Soyinka as a writer “who, in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones, fashions the drama of existence.”

Aside from his success in literature, Soyinka was famous for his fight for human rights and democracy, particularly during Nigeria’s military dictatorship.