GIVE PEACE A CHANCE
Text of the Address Delivered by the Vice-Chancellor, University of Ilorin,
Ilorin, Professor Is-haq O. Oloyede, on the Occasion of the Olu Obafemi
International Conference on African Literature and Theatre on Friday April
2, 2010 at the Auditorium, University of Ilorin.
GIVE PEACE A CHANCE
I earnestly welcome you all to this important meeting of minds in celebration of the life a man of many
parts like the one in whose honour we are here today. The University of Ilorin is proud to be associated
with Prof. OIu Obafemi, one of the sharpest products of our academic community. This is more so as Olu
Obafemi is one of the fathers of this University having joined the University right at its inception.
As a matter of fact, if the University of Ilorin is ranked as the best University in Nigeria today according
to the current webometrics ranking, it is because of the solid foundation built and the nurturing provided
over the past thirty-four years by astute and vibrant members of this academic community like this man
of letters whose is reputed to be larger than his frame, a giant of immense intellectual height. As I
welcome you all to this important occasion, especially our distinguished keynote address speakers, Prof.
Tanure Ojaide and Prof. Elizabeth D. Ojo who are here all the way from the United States for this
conference, I use this medium to wish Prof. Olu Obafemi many happy returns. Prof., I wish you sixty
more years at sixty!
The stature of Olu Obafemi as a scholar, critic, poet, social commentator and theatre practitioner is never
in doubt to any discerning mind. I believe that if we are all gathered today, a public holiday, from far and
near, it is an eloquent testimony to the magnetic personality of this ebullient scholar whose works and
engagements are fast becoming a legacy. As it is said that life begins at forty, I wish to say that marking
the sixty years of age is just a beginning of a robust life dedicated to the course of service to humanity
through scholarship and the arts.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I am fascinated by the theme of this conference, “Cultural
Construction and Re-invention for Global Peace Agenda.” This is because we are living at a time where
peace is fast becoming an endangered specie at the global stage and there is a need for setting the peace
agenda for our collective sake. Human life has become so cheap and one of the most ‘lucrative’
businesses is the invention, production and distribution of weapons that terminate life. As I said in my
address, “The Beginning of the Beginning” to the graduands of this University at the 24th convocation
ceremony on October 22, 2008, “an open sore that assails the global conscience is that our world of
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today is becoming increasingly Hobbesian for the vast majority: solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”
All of us thus have a role to play in making this world a haven of peace for us all, not a theatre of war.
Give peace a chance in Nigeria; give peace a chance in Africa; give peace a chance in the world, please.
Harold Pinter, the 2005 Literature Nobel laureate, in his acceptance speech, “Art, Truth and Politics”,
presented via video on December 8, 2005 expressed his concern about the state of the world and the
roles of people like you who are gathered here. As at that date, as he disclosed to the stunned world, “the
United States now occupies 702 military installations throughout the world in 132 countries... We don't
quite know how they got there but they are there all right. The United States possesses 8,000 active and
operational nuclear warheads. Two thousand are on hair trigger alert, ready to be launched with 15
minutes warning. It is developing new systems of nuclear force, known as bunker busters. The British,
ever cooperative, are intending to replace their own nuclear missile, Trident.” But instead of war
weapons, what the world needs are peace processes and this is why I think this theme cannot be more
appropriate. Again, let us all give peace a chance because without peace in the polity, we all fall into
pieces.
Meanwhile, at the institutional level, our response to the need for a global peace agenda is the recent
establishment of the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies which is charged to organise man-power
training in the field of peace and development studies and to run postgraduate degrees in the field. The
Centre has just produced its first set of graduands. It is our conviction that if we continue to thematise
peace, practise and propagate it, we shall all attain true peace. By the time we take a multi-level approach
to the subject of peace, academic, cultural, religious, political, etc., we hope that the culture of
peacelessness in some parts of the country and the world at large would be reversed.
This reversal of peacelessness is expedient especially for our theatre practitioners. I believe there is a
need for a re-invention in the type of language and actions portrayed in our Nigerian movie industry
called Nollywood. I do not know why almost all the movies broadcast on Africa Magic and such other
channels must have scenes of violence, sex and ‘strong language’. As a result of what the young and
impressionistic people see as portrayed by the media/movie practitioners, we are now breeding youths
who are bereft of culture and traditional values. You will agree with me that the consequences of such are
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manifesting in the society through all sorts of crime and unethical behaviour, including indecent
dressing, glamorised by our media.
I do not know why lewd music and obscene songs should be made to dominate the airwaves with the
active connivance of those who should know the cultural implications of such. Is it all because of money
and vanity? While theatre, with its components of drama and music, should be edifying as it used to be,
what we all know is that most of what we have today would be considered by Shakespeare as tales told by
idiots, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Is globalisation absolutely synonymous with
Westernisation? I do not think so and I hope this conference will address this issue, which has been
bothering me for some time, like many other helpless members of our society so that some sanity will be
restored into what the young are made to watch and listen to in the old and new media. I am interested
in knowing the way forward through the submissions of our seasoned academics and theatre
professionals and practitioners here present. We need to devise ways of preserving our cultural heritage
so that our children would not be swept off completely by the flood of ‘modernity’.
Lastly, I want to thank you all for honouring scholarship and one of our own with your distinguished
presence in this occasion. I wish you happy conference proceedings and safe returns to your destinations.
I also wish Prof. Olu Obafemi many more active years in his commitment to leaving this world better
than he met it through theatre and literature. Let us all remember that there is no alternative to peace, so
in everything we do and in whatever situation we are, let us give peace a chance.
Thank you all for your attention. You are all welcome.
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