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At 74, I am not fulfilled — Soyinka

By David Amuwa

Barely a month to his 74th birthday coming up on July 13, the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has said he is not fulfilled.

Olayinka Oyebode Prof. Wole Soyinka

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Soyinka said this on an Africa Independent Television programme monitored in Lagos on Tuesday.

He said that his life was a mere integral part of the society in which he lives, and what happens to the larger society determines his happiness or sense of fulfilment.

His words, “I remain a very dissatisfied human being. I am not fulfilled because I am an integral part of the society. In the society, you see so much diminish in people’s dignity, too much poverty in the society, and the lack of will on the part of the government to ameliorate the situation continues to increase. So, I am sorry, I am not a fulfilled man.”

Soyinka lamented that the Nigerian youth had been lost in many directions and that solutions for their recovery had to begin in earnest if they must avoid the mistake of past generations.

“Our youths are being lost to different ways. They are lost to the passion of acquiring material things in every possible way, even at the exchange of their souls. They are lost to religious fundamentalists. That is why you see students at the university in secret cults. They have lost their minds.

“But you should ask why, and who put this poison in their minds. Children are not born with bad attitudes, it is inculcated in them. So, we need to begin a massive re-orientation of the minds of our youths.”