Second time around and what a SOUR taste in the mouth again!
What’s missing or who is missing in action?
On Sunday, October 19, 1986, I was in our NEWSWATCH newsroom expecting Dele Giwa, editor-in-chief to brief me and offer a written note to go to Abeokuta and talk to Wole Soyinka on his Nobel laureate award. That would have afforded me the second chance of having a one-on-one interview with the ORIGINAL ABAMI EDA in the literary world. My first encounter with him was WHEN I was saddled with the responsibility of using his film BLUES FOR THE PRODIGAL as a prop to looking at the man SOYINKA. That was in 1985 before the palace coup that brought the EJIWONUOLA (tooth-gapped) GENERAL to power as the first Military President in the history of “our own dear native land” where “though tribe and tongue may differ in (bloody) brotherhood we stand (like a three legged ‘four square table)”.
Spoke on! Spoke on!
It was a lost opportunity.
O ma se o! How? “Kilo de?”.
“They have bombed Dele Giwa!”, exclaimed Dele Olojede on seeing me, Dele Omotunde…
The rest is history with an attached footnote of SOLVABLE BUT UNSOLVED MURDER ‘MYSTERY’ in modern times, though I still remember how Soyinka felt by the parcel bombing of the big giwa (Hausa word for elephant) of journalism. He said the dastardly killing of Giwa shortly after his (Soyinka’s) winning a Nobel prize for the country had turned the JOY of victory into “a SOUR taste” in his mouth. So sad!
Sorry o.
Hmmm…sorry indeed. Now take a look at this. On Sunday, July 13, 2025, Wole Soyinka’s 91st anniversary of his birthday, I was busy celebrating and eulogizing him along with others on social media. As usual we all had a good time extolling his virtues and hailing his achievements in the literary world, then came a BANG!
What’s banging bang?!
Another SOUR TASTE in the mouth. General Muhammadu Buhari, former military Head of State and, of recent, an agbada (babaringa) wearing civilian President don kpai far away in London where he had gone to SALVAGE what remained of his health as a result of the apparent state of poor health facilities in the country of his own.
What a reminiscence!
Any sense in that?
Yes! Babangida was in power when Dele Giwa’s death made Nobel Prize Award turn SOUR in his mouth.
What a pity!
Farabale…Buhari’s death has also made Soyinka’s Day of Joy turn SOUR in his mouth. There must be something ‘kongi’ in KONGI’S mouth, abi what do you think?
Dele Omotunde
113 Views
WhatsApp us