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Bury me in Abeokuta, says Soyinka

Posted by By Moshood Adebayo, Abeokuta on 2008/08/17 | Views: 675 |

Bury me in Abeokuta, says Soyinka


Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has chosen Abeokuta, Ogun State, as burial place when finally he bows to death.

Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has chosen Abeokuta, Ogun State, as burial place when finally he bows to death.

Soyinka, who spoke with journalists at his Ilugun-Itoko village, Abeokuta, had been asked where his resting place would be when he retorted: 'Death is not a secret subject, I will be buried here.'

However, the renowned playwright refused to identify the exact portion when inquisitive reporters pressed him further.
'For the purpose of emphasis, let me stress that I will be buried here. But I will not show you where in this particular place. I am not afraid of death,' he said.

He told journalists that he decided his final resting place a long time ago, saying, 'it is here that I will be buried in the 'Autonomous Republic of Ijegba.'
Ijegba is a coinage from his parental background of Ijebu and Egba. He jocularly told journalists that he had appointed an ambassador for his own republic.
Soyinka's house is a village settlement of about ten acres of land, which has only the red-blocked storey building of the professor of literature.

Asked to comment on the state of the nation, Soyinka said: 'Whether things are improving, I leave you to decide. What I can tell you is that a few individuals, a clique, are trying to carve out a little oasis of sanity.'

He also said the outcry from certain quarters in the country on the cession of the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon last Thursday was belated.
According to him, 'since Nigeria had submitted itself to the international arbitration, there was nothing it could do in this regard. Since both countries have submitted themselves for adjudication at an international body, what are we arguing about? We can't start moving goal-post after the goal had been scored.'

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