Welcome Oration in Honour of Prof Olu Obafemi, By Prof John Illah

WELCOME ORATION IN HONOUR OF PROF. OLU OBAFEMI, NNOM.
PROTOCOLS
It is a unique privilege to welcome home the very accomplished Prof. Olu Obafemi, poet, critic, dramaturge. Above several accolades, he is a member of the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM), Fellow, Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL), Fellow, Nigerian English Studies Association, Fellow, Society of Nigerian Theatre Artists (SONTA), and one time president of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA).

I say welcome home, not just to the order of the comrades in Arms, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), with whom he has talked the talk, walked the walk and fought the fight for the upliftment of Nigeria’s University education from its recurring doldrums.

I also say welcome home to Prof. Olu Obafemi because not too many people know that Jos is his third home, after Akutukpa Bunu (Kogi State) and Ilorin (Kwara State). Sometime ago, he came on a sojourn to Kuru, to the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) as Director of Research. He later on assumed the position of the Director-General of the National Institute in an acting capacity. As you can see, Prof. Olu Obafemi and Jos have been in this Royal Rumble for a longtime.

He really does not need an introduction. He is a Red Feather, to borrow the masquerade idiom. When his type enters the arena, the mood and tempo change to the ululation of the audience. It was with his type that our ancestors went to war in the days of old. Success was guaranteed. He knows how to get things done!

Because of his vocational inclining as a poet and dramaturge, let me indulge you with the story of how the tortoise went into the heavens with the birds for a feast. You all know the story but let me exercise my poetic license!

It was a time like this in the days of old: a time when people were waiting for alert, when neighbors climbed through the roof of their house to accredit what was going on in their neighbors’ kitchen. In fact, the Headmaster of the village school was sighted trekking to school through a bush path! Strange times! In all these, a letter arrived inviting only the birds to the heavens for a feast. This was whispered from the parrot to the owl and the vultures.

That was how it got to the tortoise. He too wanted to go, fly to the heavens with the birds. People wept in laughter, others jeered, but the tortoise was not deterred. He set about collecting feathers from his friends and rehearsing. On the appointed day, the birds glided into the air like Boeing 737. The tortoise too, not to be outdone jerked into the air, like Overland, to the applause of well-wishers and those who have come to spectate.

They got to the feast and the tortoise took charge. This is the metaphor of the moment. It is the metaphor of heroism associated with the roots of drama. Drama comes from the Greek word dran, meaning to do. The hero is the one who does. What does he do, you may ask?
He does that which restores peace and equilibrium or envisages the action that will move the community out of the logjams of the status quo. In this way, the ideologue, the one who dares to think of an alternative route, becomes the hero.

Prof. Olu Obafemi is the hero of the moment, an ideologue becomes hero. His intellect, passion and activism, nationally and internationally, have yielded wreaths, encomiums and accolades. I am not going to reel through these because we will not conclude this greater dionysia. But very recently, he was knighted with an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree, by the Federal University Lokoja.

ASUU too has found something sweet, Morountodun, Yoruba for I have found something sweet, in Prof. Olu Obafemi. Is it his large heart, his ability to rise above tedium, routine and pettiness? Or is it his humility, loyalty or doggedness! All these quirks stand Prof. Olu Obafemi out. That was why, a longtime ago, he decided to name one of his children, Morountodun, I have found something sweet, alluding not only to the goodness of the human heart but to Nigeria’s potential for greatness when it decides to take charge of her flight into the heavens with the birds.

These are the thematic and ideological concerns of Nigeria’s post war dramatists. These include writers like Femi Osofisan, Tunde Fatunde, Tunde Lakoju, Tess Onwueme, Akanji Nasiru and many others. Critics refer to them as the radical generation because their works espouse a narrative of revolution, seeking to cause a change in consciousness that could trigger transformative change within society. Olu Obafemi is one of the leading lights of this generation.

On behalf of the many constituencies and platforms here gathered, many who have worked and walked with Olu Obafemi, I welcome this eminent scholar, journalist and activist. The tasks ahead are enormous, but they include speaking truth to power. I am optimistic about Nigeria’s flight into the heavens in spite of the various travesties of the democratic transition.
Finally, remain calm: Naira has no Gender.
Thank You.
Prof John Egwugwu Illah
FSONTA.