Pyrates Confraternity not secret cult, says Soyinka

Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, on Friday, described corruption as a deadly cankerworm that lays great nations in ruins and puts the people at a great disadvantage.

Soyinka stated that without attitudinal change and the readiness of everyone to begin to do the right thing, winning the war against the mounting corruption challenge in the country would remain an impossible task.

The world-renowned scholar disclosed this at the 26th Annual Wole Soyinka Lecture organised by the National Association of Seadogs, otherwise known as Pyrates Confraternity, to mark the 90th birthday of Soyinka, who, alongside six other undergraduates of the University of Ibadan, founded the group in 1952.

The lecture, held at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta, had as its theme, “The Baby or the bathwater: Navigating the dark tunnels of systemic corruption to nationhood”.

Soyinka, while commenting on the lecture delivered by former governor of Lagos State, Mr Babatunde Fashola, said that the challenge of corruption was such that it ran from the top to the bottom in Nigeria, adding that only a collective decision would halt its deadly march in the country.

He said, “The particular aspect of this lecture that struck me is corruption. Corruption is not just when you exchange money; it is a cankerworm that eats deep into the fabric of society from the top to the bottom and corrupts our very nature, our very existence.

“And one aspect of the lecture emphasised that the cure for corruption begins from the inside. Yes, we can talk about institutions, government, and the exercise of power unfairly and inordinately to the disadvantage of the rest of the community as part of corruption, but ultimately, the solution, both short-term and long-term, must begin from the inside, and this is one of the motives for establishing the Pyrates Confraternity 62 years ago.”

Soyinka also used the medium to disabuse the minds of the people regarding misconceptions about the Pyrates Confraternity, saying that the registered association is not a blood-thirsty secret cult but an association founded to push for justice and advance the betterment of the country.

Soyinka, alongside the former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, later unveiled a book “Ship Ahoy,” written to document the 60-year history of the confraternity.

Giving his lecture earlier, Mr Babatunde Fashola, the former two-term Minister of Works and Housing, described Soyinka as not only a gift to the country and the continent but to the entire civilisation.

Speaking on the theme of the lecture, Fashola maintained that while corruption in terms of pecuniary gains is undoubtedly condemned, the worst form of corruption is that which has displaced our highly cherished moral values and has therefore corrupted the people’s ways of life.

He said, “When I was in office as a minister, the Federal Road Safety Corps usually made copies of the monthly reports on road crashes available to me. The report is actually for the office of the Secretary-General of the Federation, but I used to get a copy.

“In October 2022, a total of 1,111 road crashes were reported across the country, out of which 449 people died, representing six per cent of 6458 people involved in the accidents, with 2780 injured.

“The analysis showed a three per cent decrease when compared with the previous month but a 10 per cent increase when compared with the figure for October 2021.

“This goes to show that an average of 400 people are lost monthly to road crashes in the country, but I doubt if the insecurity which is always an issue during campaigns is responsible for such a huge loss of lives every month in the country.”