In honour of Odia Ofeimun, By Kunle Ajibade

At a time like this when putative fascists, autocrats and racists are hell-bent on destroying our common values; hell-bent on falsifying reality and undermining the possibility and power of critical thinking; hell-bent on turning citizens into obedient subjects, we need, more than ever before, rigorous and clarifying thoughts exemplified by Ofeimun’s body of work. We need a chorus of lucid voices and illuminating pieces of writing that give us solace and remind us of the importance of an open society.   

Odia Ofeimun is formidably learned and insightful. His poetry and journalism are distinguished by their eloquence and dazzling intelligence. Deriving strength and confidence in stubborn hope, he fights relentlessly for social justice, economic equity and political fairness. As a young man, Odia was obstinate, irreverent, self-respecting and sassy. He never bowed to penury. He never bowed to bullies. Conscious of the significance of the Esan name he bears with pride, he has continued to be honest, courageous and consistent. At sixteen, he had read and re-read many great writers all across the globe, who then made him an incredible bibliophile and a great poet. Before he turned twenty, he wrote many of the frequently luminous poems that Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Frank Aig Imoukhuede, Cyprian Ekwensi, Gerald Moore and Ulli Beier accepted and published, and anthologised.

As Publicity Secretary, General Secretary and President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), he helped to mentor many young writers. Working with Kole Omotoso, he made sure that ANA sponsored the publication of Idzia Ahmad’s A Shout Across the Wall; Kemi Atanda-Ilori’s Amnesty; Uche Nduka’s Flower Child; Afam Ake’s Stolen Moments; Emman Usman Shehu’s Questions for Big Brother; and Esiaba Irobi’s Cotyledons. All of them were then young and gifted poets thirsting for sunlight. The association also published an anthology of new Nigerian poetry, Voices from the Fringe, edited by Harry Garuba. His Hornbill House published in 2012 Tade Ipadeola’s The Sahara Testaments, which won in 2013 the Nigeria Prize for Literature instituted by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG).

Mario Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian novelist and the 2010 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, said that “Literature is a form of permanent insurrection…its mission is to arouse, to disturb, to alarm, to keep men in a constant state of dissatisfaction with themselves.” Since the publication of the poetry of his youth, which won the University of Ibadan Poetry Competition in 1975, Odia Ofeimun has never stopped to arouse and keep his readers in a constant state of dissatisfaction with the conditions militating against their progress and wellbeing. In poem after poem, Ofeimun strikes a balance between the emancipatory force of his content and the vividness, the intensity, and the lyricism of his form. Compassionate, perceptive, resolute and argumentative, he grips you with his writings, which are mostly laced with protest at the arrogant political power, corporate hollow men and contemptible individuals in the larger society. Odia Ofeimun doesn’t know how to compromise with evil.

In poem after poem, Ofeimun strikes a balance between the emancipatory force of his content and the vividness, the intensity, and the lyricism of his form. Compassionate, perceptive, resolute and argumentative, he grips you with his writings, which are mostly laced with protest at the arrogant political power, corporate hollow men and contemptible individuals in the larger society. Odia Ofeimun doesn’t know how to compromise with evil.

In a documentary on Ali Mazrui, A Walking Triple Heritage, by Ndirangu Wachanga, Ngugi wa Thiongo describes himself as primarily a literary artist with a political scientist’s bent and Mazrui as primarily a political scientist with a literary bent. In his writings, Ofeimun shows time and again that he inhabits in equal proportion the two sensibilities. Broadly speaking, his critical essays celebrate ideas and movements that will make our world a better place to live in. At a time like this when putative fascists, autocrats and racists are hell-bent on destroying our common values; hell-bent on falsifying reality and undermining the possibility and power of critical thinking; hell-bent on turning citizens into obedient subjects, we need, more than ever before, rigorous and clarifying thoughts exemplified by Ofeimun’s body of work. We need a chorus of lucid voices and illuminating pieces of writing that give us solace and remind us of the importance of an open society.   

“I love America more than any other country in the world, and exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticise her perpetually,” so said James Baldwin, the brilliant African American novelist, essayist and playwright. Odia Ofeimun too loves his country wholeheartedly. And for this reason, he insists on criticising it perpetually. He did that as a factory worker. He did that as a young political science undergraduate at the University of Ibadan, contesting for the presidency of the Students’ Union. He did that as a secondary school teacher. He did that as private secretary to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, with whom he had many robust debates. He criticised Nigeria constructively as a columnist and member of the editorial board of The Guardian newspapers. He cared a lot about his country as a columnist and chairman of the editorial board of A.M. NEWS, P.M. NEWS, TEMPO and TheNEWS. He did that as president of the Association of Nigerian Authors, with intellectual and emotional clarity. And he does that now as an eclectic highbrow who shares his knowledge with other concerned citizens and provokes a revival of a sense of civic responsibility in them.

He has also published the following poetry collections: The Poet Lied; A Handle for the Flutist; Dreams at Work and Other Poems; London Letter and Other Poems; Go Tell the Generals; I Will Ask Questions with Stones If They Take My Voice; A Boiling Caracas and Other Poems; No Country is Enough; and Geography as Faith. His poems for dance drama include: Under African Skies; A Feast of Return; Itoya: A Dance for Africa; Nigeria the Beautiful; and Because of 1914.

Apart from several poetry anthologies, he has published books of gutsy essays on politics, literature and culture such as June Twelvers’ Dilemma; When Does a Civil War Come to an End?; In Search of Ogun: Soyinka in Spite of Nietzsche; Taking Nigeria Seriously; A House of Many Mansions; Media Nigeriana; This Conference Must Be Different; and Impossible Death of the African Author. He has also published the following poetry collections: The Poet Lied; A Handle for the Flutist; Dreams at Work and Other Poems; London Letter and Other Poems; Go Tell the Generals; I Will Ask Questions with Stones If They Take My Voice; A Boiling Caracas and Other Poems; No Country is Enough; and Geography as Faith. His poems for dance drama include: Under African Skies; A Feast of Return; Itoya: A Dance for Africa; Nigeria the Beautiful; and Because of 1914.

Clearly, many of these books are award-winners. Yet Odia Ofeimun, who has helped to set up different literary awards, not only in ANA but also elsewhere, has refused to compete for prizes. In 2010, he accepted the Fonlon-Nichols award for excellence in creative writing and contributions to human rights activism conferred on him by the US-based African Literature Association (ALA) because he was nominated for it. Long before then, he was at Oxford University, England, on a Commonwealth Fellowship. At the end of his productive stay, he came back to Nigeria only to join the struggle against the dictatorships of Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha. He always said that if he did not have the outlet to fight those tyrants with his polemical pieces, he would have had to fight them dangerously through the force of arms. In June, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu conferred on him one of the major national honours: Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON), for his meritorious contributions to the restoration of democracy in Nigeria.

Kunle Ajibade is the co-founder of TheNEWS, PM NEWS and TEMPO.

This is the text of a citation read at the Shell hall, Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos, during the presentation of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism Life-time Award for Journalistic Excellence to Odia Ofeimun on 9 December.