Fausat Bello
Nigerian playwright and Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has condemned the demands of some indigenes of Ile Ife, the host of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), that the next Vice Chancellor of the institution must be from the town, describing it as crazy.
Soyinka who is a former lecturer at OAU, made this known on Wednesday while speaking in conversation with Professor Wale Adebanwi, Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies, Department of Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania, against the backdrop of incessant kidnappings, ritual killings and violence in Nigeria.
When asked about the agitation of some indigenes of Ile-Ife that the Chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University must be an indigene of the ancient city, Soyinka responded saying, “Why should there be an Ife VC anywhere?”
He also called on Ife people “who do not share the idea being peddled by the protesters to speak up and be in the forefront of efforts to tackle their ugly campaign.”
Soyinka said, “An Ife person wrote me and say, look at these people disgracing us. I told him go there and disgrace them. You are an Ife person. You should be in the front line. The Ife people should say those people don’t belong to us, we don’t know where they came from. And they should be dealt with ruthlessly. Why should there be an Ife VC anywhere. I just don’t understand what they put in the water these days. It is crazy.”
Many Nigerians have condemned the campaign, including Ondo state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN.
In a statement he personally signed on Tuesday, he said, “the latest news on the invasion of the campus by some Ife indigenes and traditionalists, allegedly , to protest the failure by the authorities to appoint “an Ife indigene” showcase the extent on which the system has sunk, almost irretrievably.”
The Governing Council of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife on Thursday, March 17 had announced the appointment of a Professor of Agricultural Economics from the university’s Faculty of Agriculture, Adebayo Bamire, as the 12th Vice-Chancellor of the university.
The announcement, however, led to protest against the appointment of a non-indigene as the institution’s Vice-Chancellor by some indigenes of Ile-Ife.
TOS NEWS had also reported that Ife indigenes on Monday morning, March 21, resumed protest at the gate of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, blocking the main entrance.
The protesters asked people to go back home, including the students of the university. They lamented that Ife indigenes were being enslaved in the university and it was time for them to rule.
