Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has revealed why he agreed to have the National Arts Theatre in Lagos renamed after him.
Speaking on Thursday at the reopening of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and Creative Arts, the playwright admitted he accepted the honour with “mixed feelings.”
Soyinka explained that he had long considered the iconic theatre irredeemable, until its recent revamp by the Bankers’ Committee restored hope in the edifice.
“I never believed the theatre could be renovated. I had thought it was beyond saving. But seeing the monumental turnaround, I decided to accept—even if it means eating my words,” he said.
The literary giant, however, confessed that he still felt uneasy about joining the ranks of leaders who “appropriate public monuments” by having their names attached to them.
“It just didn’t seem right to me. I have to stand up in public and watch my name being put up as yet another appropriator,” Soyinka remarked.
Despite his reservations, Soyinka said the theatre’s transformation was worth the symbolic renaming.
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