From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
The Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, on Friday listed effective ways to win the war against corruption, which he described as a deadly cankerworm that lays great nations in ruins and puts the people at great disadvantage.
He disclosed this at the 26th annual Wole Soyinka Lectures, organised by the National Association of Seadogs, otherwise known as Pyrates Confraternity, to commemorate the 90th birthday of Soyinka, who alongside six other undergraduates of University of Ibadan founded the group in 1952.
The lecture was held at June 12 Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta, with the theme: ‘The Baby or the Bathwater: Navigating the Dark Tunnels of Systemic Corruption to Nationhood’.
Soyinka stated that without attitudinal change and readiness of everyone to begin to do the right thing, winning the war against the mounting corruption challenge in the country would remain an impossible task.
The Nobel Laureate, while commenting on the lecture delivered by a former governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, noted: “The particular aspect of this lecture that struck me is corruption. Corruption is not just when you steal public money. It is a cankerworm that eats deep into the fabric of the society from the top to the bottom and corrupts our very nature, our very existence…
“But, ultimately, the solution, short term, immediate and long term, must begin from the inside and this is one of the motives for establishing Pyrates Confraternity 62 years ago.”
Soyinka also disabused the minds of the people on misconceptions about Pyrates Confraternity. He said the registered association is not a bloodthirsty secret cult, but an association founded to push for justice and advance the betterment of the country.
Soyinka alongside the former Secretary-General of Commonwealth of Nations, Chief Emeka Anyawu, later unveiled a book ‘Ship Ahoy’ written to document 60 years history of the confraternity.
In the lecture, Fashola, a former Minister of Works, described Soyinka as a gift to the country, the continent, and the entire civilisation. He stated that corruption, in terms of pecuniary gains, is no doubt stands condemned. He added that the worse form of corruption is that which has displaced highly cherished moral values and has therefore corrupted the people’s ways of life.