More drama as Nobel laureate finally gives up his chairmanship seat at the Centre for Black Culture

Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka resigned as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding.

Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka finally resigned as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding, two days to a hearing at the Federal High Court, Osogbo, in a case between the centre and the Attorney General of Osun State.

The chairmanship of the board had sparked a bitter war of words between former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Soyinka.

Oyinlola, who was the Governor of Osun State at the time the centre was established, was the chairman of the board. But Governor Rauf Aregbesola, who took over from Oyinlola, appointed Soyinka as the chairman of another board of the centre.

 

Soyinka recently accused Oyinlola of carrying on illegally as the chairman of the board of the UNESCO-affiliated centre, but Oyinlola, who showed documents which authorised him to be the permanent chairman of the board, countered the professor's claim.

Soyinka, in a statement titled, 'Unfinished business in the CBCIU,' on Saturday, however, said, "The resumption of hearing on the Oyinlola versus Osun case of wrongful dismissal strikes me as a compelling juncture at which to express my frustration and embarrassment at the persistence of sectors of the media in designating the situation as some kind of hustle for position between two individuals. This is painful reductionism.

"In any case, I am left with no choice but to openly demand of the governor of Osun State the immediate and formal acceptance of my resignation letter from CBCIU chairmanship. In that resignation letter of July 14, 2015, my position was spelt out in part, as follows:

"I undertook this assignment on principle-quite apart from my sentimental attachment to the political constituency of my late friend, Bola Ige, assassinated by those very forces against which CBCIU must remain resolutely embattled."

The Nobel Prize winner added that he found it despicable when "an elected individual" would divert the resources of his electorate to "carving out for himself a sinecure." He noted further that self-service should not be read in the vocabulary of anyone fortunate enough to be called to serve his or her people.

Soyinka denied claims that he was involved in the legal battles surrounding the chairmanship of the centre.

Soyinka said: "To play a variation on the late MKO Abiola's favourite sayings: while I do occasionally loan out my head to crack a coconut, I deplore any attempt to have it shaved it in my absence. I am not a party to this case!"