SOYINKA CENTER: SOYINKA DESERVES THE HONOUR – MURIC

2^nd October, 2025

PRESS RELEASE:

SOYINKA CENTER: SOYINKA DESERVES THE HONOUR – MURIC

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has endorsed the naming of the National Arts Theater, Iganmu, Lagos, after renowned Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka. The group declared that he is eminently qualified for the honour.

MURIC’s endorsement was contained in a statement issued on Thursday, 2nd October, 2025 by the Founder and Executive Director of the Muslim rights advocacy group, Professor Ishaq Akintola

The statement reads:

“The renovated National Arts Theater, Iganmu, Lagos, was renamed after Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, yesterday, Wednesday, 1st October, 2025. The national monument was first opened in 1976 when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was a military head of state (tvcnews.tv/why-i-accepted-national-theatre-renaming-wole-soyinka/).

“We fully endorse this action. Professor Wole Soyinka deserves the honour a hundred times over as there is no living Nigerian who has struggled for and promoted democratic ideals like him in this country. 

“A globally acknowledged intellectual and activist par excellence, Wole Soyinka comes across as a most courageous personality with clear cut goals. His resilience is bottomless. His ability to mobilise and strategize is legendary.

“This is not sycophancy. We are simply testifying to incidents and circumstances to which we have been eyewitnesses. We also believe in honouring our heroes while they are alive. Soyinka has sacrificed so much that Nigeria cannot pay him back in full.

“We are obliged to speak up today because we are living witnesses and the fact that he is not a Muslim like us should not stop us from giving our testimony. It should not always be about religion. Humanity also matters. Besides, we must also answer the call of conscience.

“Based on instructions which cascaded down to activists fighting the military cabal at the time, MURIC leaders had occasion to see Professor Wole Soyinka in real action and physically too in the field of aluta.

“In the twilight of the year 1993, while carrying out the order to engage in civil disobedience over the criminal, irrational and unjust annulment of the fairest, most peaceful and most orderly presidential election of June 12, 1993, MURIC leaders who were manning Iyana Iba to Isheri axis of Lagos State had an encounter with this enigmatic personality, Professor Wole Soyinka.

“The roads had been blocked with disused tyres, huge stones and woods to disallow mobile policemen who were patrolling the area from gaining easy access when a motorcycle rider appeared with one passenger. We thought they were spies for the illegal Abacha regime. But the man on the back seat was Professor Soyinka himself.

“His appearance was electrifying. A new dose of motivation was immediately injected into our veins. We hailed him as he gave further instructions. No police vehicle passed the zone that day without being welcomed with a barrage of pebbles.

“Not only that. Soyinka is one of the few living Nigerian leaders who was known to have confronted the military. He battled generals Ibrahim Babangida, Sanni Abacha and Abdul Salaam to a standstill. Yet his battles with bad rulers was not limited to the military alone. He fought bad civilian rulers too. He hated dictators in power. He despised ineptitude in leadership. He treated kleptomaniacs like lepers.

“He is known to have single-handedly stormed the radio station in Ibadan to disrupt a live broadcast being made by the premier of the Western Region at the time, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola. He is also credited with the establishment of Radio Kudirat overseas to counter the propaganda of the totalitarian military regime.

“Such was Soyinka, a fearless and exemplary leader. A generalissimo primus inter pareil. Who else deserves getting the National Theater renamed after him except Soyinka the lion heart?

“MURIC congratulates this gargantuan intellectual figure on the occasion of naming Nigeria’s most prestigious national monument of art after him. In like manner, we commend President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his marksmanship. He got it right. Soyinka it is.”

#PresidentTinubu

#WoleSoyinka

#SoyinkaItIs

Professor Ishaq Akintola,

Founder/Executive Director,

Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC).