Yemi Adebowale
11 July 2008
Lagos — Tuesday, June 17 will for a very long time remain evergreen in the memory of the villagers of Opokuma, in Kolokuma local government area of Bayelsa State. It was the day the sleepy community hosted Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, thanks to Alaire Alaibe's Family Reorientation, Education and Empowerment Foundation (FREE). The Nobel Laureate was accompanied by four other literary icons - Professor J.P Clark, Professor Chris Ikporikpo, Dr. Gabriel Okara and Professor William Ogionwon. The event was the commissioning of a Library and Youths Self-Esteem Centre built for the community by FREE. The villagers did not disappoint as they turned out in hundreds. The venue was packed full with enthusiastic villagers struggling for a handshake with Soyinka.
The event provided an opportunity for Alaere to reiterate the FREE philosophy. "FREE is centred primarily on education. We have clearly identified education as the most important tool through which the people could be liberated from the abyss of poverty, low self-esteem and abuse from the ruling political class.
"We want to provide an opportunity for self discovery through books and this was our primary motivation for setting up this library right here at the FREE centre in Opokuma for our youths in secondary and tertiary institutions as well as a reference centre for undergraduate and post-graduates studies."
The library which seats 138 people has over 3,000 titles covering humanities, science, engineering, medicine, applied sciences as well as sections to cater for the needs of primary and secondary school children. The FREE founder spent $15,000 out of the $20,000 UNESCO prize money she won for the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy in September last year, to bring in a container of books from the United States and 20 cartons of books by Nigerian authors to equip the library. "It also provided an avenue for pupils in primary schools and our adult education students to benefit from a wide selection of writers in an atmosphere of self-discovery and fear of God."
The 1,000 capacity Youth Self-esteem Centre, Alaere said, would also help in discovering budding talents in music, film and the arts "thereby assisting in eradicating youth restiveness and other social vices." She expressed her gratitude to individuals and corporate organisations that have supported FREE such as GTBank, Skye Bank, UBA Foundation, SO&U Saatchi and others who have demonstrated strong commitment to FREE.
Kongi, as Soyinka is popularly called by his admirers revealed he was compelled to personally grace the occasion because of the importance of a library and social centre in the development of the society. He paid glowing tributes to the founder of FREE for her vision and untiring efforts in improving the fortunes of rural women not only in Bayelsa State but eight other states within the region. Soyinka also called for the replacement of gun militancy for intellectual militancy in the quest for justice, equity and peace in the troubled region.
The Nobel Laureate who said he had been part of the efforts to find lasting and fair solutions to the Niger-Delta question through the Commission of the World Nobel Laureates commended the initiative of Mrs. Alaibe for conceiving the idea of a community library as part of measures to positively engage the youth and redirect their energy to positive and productive ventures.
Soyinka pointed out that the gun militancy strategy currently being used by the youths of the region to fight for what they consider a just cause would only aggravate "the already bad situation." He said the people of the Niger Delta would be the worse for it, as already apparent from the many clashes between the military Joint Task Force and the militants resulting in loss of innocent lives and the destruction of villages.
According to Soyinka, the best solution to the poor living conditions and under-development of the region will be to embark on an intellectual war and battle of brains which can only be acquired by embracing education and access to good information through reading and debates. He said with the FREE Foundation library named after him, Mrs. Alaibe and her foundation had provided the most powerful ammunition for the people to free themselves from oppression, poverty, diseases and ignorance.
The library, he explained, would help the youths of the area to read and develop their minds and liberate themselves "from the subjugation of the selfish leaders who rather than provide educational facilities within the communities, use the youths for other motives that do not advance the genuine agitation of the Niger-Deltans."
Human minds, Soyinka further said should be liberated through reading, and urged parents to pay more attention to the reading habits of their children. Referring to the current armed militancy in the region, Soyinka noted that most agitations are mainly carried out to address to the goals of peace and justice. He however, enjoined the youths of the region to drop their weapons and adopt intellectual militancy.
"This project must not be wasted. There has to be reciprocity from the other side. Meaning, the leaders must address the issues that drove the youths to gun militancy in the first place while the armed militants must lay down their arms to explore the new way - the intellectual militancy approach."
In a goodwill message, Dr. Tony Uranta, a social crusader said the time for gun militancy had gone as it had achieved its purpose of drawing national and international attention to the criminal neglect of the Niger-Delta region in the last 50 years. Uranta maintained that now is the time to replace gun militancy with intellectual militancy as this would help the youths of the region to meaningfully contribute to the process and debate on how best to develop the region.
The commissioning of the library was also witnessed by Mr. Ray Ekpu, CEO of Newswatch Magazine; Mr. Udeme Ufot, Managing Director of SOU Saatchi & Saatchi; representatives of UNESCO and UNICEF; and various interest groups and traditional rulers.
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