***Advocates meritocracy, social justice in polity
By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja.
A Clinical Literary and Publishing Studies lecturer DR Abba Abba, has decried the intellectual misplacement in governance with “The Lesser Read Leading The Better Read” and stunting the much desired advancement and growth of the country.
Abba stated this at the 2nd Annual Coloqium of the Federal University Lokoja organised in honour of Prof. Olu Obafemi, a Professor of English and Dramatic Literature who retired from the University of Ilorin in 2020.
Dr Abba of the Department of English and Literary Studies at FUL said the 2nd Annual Coloqium is themed, “Olu Obafemi’s Post-Feminist Vision: Drama, Materialist Aesthetics, and the Nigerian Woman.”
He said that retrieval efforts at restoring the near lost relationship between the Town and the Gown, which had been the foundation on which tertiary institutions were built jow poses a huge challenge.
Abba revealed that the once robust relationship, dating back to monasteries as far back as in the 14th century when Louis XIV had to shut down monasteries believing that they were the causes of the uprisings within the kingdom, has nosedived.
“Today, under the Military, we saw that happened to ASUU. We saw what happened to many academics who had to enlighten society on what we call “invidious and insidious subversion” by mobilizing students intellectually to engage.
He said that rather than constructively engaging the leadership, “we get into the mundane part of sex and sexuality.
“We even legitimize such crimes that have now become a culture about cross-gender. We will try to legitimize it with modernity. And in all that, captured in the works of Prof. Olu Obafemi”, he pointed out.
On the advocacy for the rejuvenation of the female gender, he said, “I do not agree that our women at any time have been marginalized. I imagine that they went to sleep and suddenly got up.
“And as you are getting to the eve of the dismissal of that notion that the woman’s place is in the other room, the reminder of what our women are, should be and ought to be, become rife.”
In his welcome address, Vice Chancellor of FUL, Prof. Olayemi Akinwumi described Prof. Obafemi as somebody the Academia in Kogi and beyond were proud of.
Prof. Akinwumi said, “He is somebody that we are proud of in this state and we are proud of in this country. The University deserves giants in the academic world on whose shoulders to stand and attract more development to the institution.
“We still need other people, giants that we can stand on their shoulders to advertise the University and standing on their shoulders not only to advertise ourselves but also to attract many things to the university”, he explained.
Speaking on Prof. Obafemi’s literary works, Prof. Gbemisola of the Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, in his presentation titled: “Killing Two Stones With One Bird: Reflection on Class and Gender Ideation in Olu Obafemi’s Drama.
He said that due to the ideological consciousness of Prof. Obafemi, his plays deploy African traditions of story telling, music, dance and drama while his Marxist ideological consciousness inspires a sense of fairness and social justice that encompasses emancipation of the oppressed, regardless of gender and social Class.
Prof. Mabel Evwoerhoma, a Professors of Theatre Arts at the University of Abuja also made a presentation on Prof. olu Obafemi’s Drama on “Post-Feminist Vision, Materialist Aesthetics And the Nigerian Woman.
Abel Joseph, a professor of African and Post-colonial Literary Studies at the Federal University, Lokoja also presented, “Women And Power Beyond The Rhetoric Of Difference In Olu Obafemi’s Naira Has No Gender, And Near And Distant Cries.
Prof. Obafemi a playwright, poet, biographer, literary and theatre scholar, novelist, an author, member of Nigeria Academy of Letters and Nigerian Media Merit Award among many other accomplishments has several works on Feminism.
In the citation of Prof. Obafemi read by Prof. M.S. Audu, the retired professor had made so much contributions to the growth and development of English and Literature in Nigeria and impacted the global literary community. (Ends)