Professor Wole Soyinka said two years he spent with his uncle, Oludotun Ransome Kuti was enough to have shaped his life and made him what he is today – Soyinka said his uncle, Kuti, was the principal of Abeokuta Grammar School when he was a student before moving to Ibadan Grammar School.
The Nobel laureate said he remember that his uncle wielded him heavy cane when he was at Abeokuta Grammar School. He said the strict discipline he got as a child growing up with his uncle, father of Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Oludotun Ransome Kuti, affected his life positively.
Soyinka who is one of the extended family members of the Kuti family, relived how tough it was to have spent two years at the Abeokuta Grammar School, where his uncle, Oludotun Ransome-Kuti was a principal. The nobel laureate made this known on Friday, April 26, at the Unveiling of the Kuti Heritage House at Isabo area of Abeokuta which was refurbished by the Ogun state government.
According to him, “I remember my uncle. I remember that he wielded heavy cane that was what made us. Two years were more than enough to tune me up. ”I spent two years at Abeokuta Grammar School before I escaped to Ibadan Grammar School, which to him, was an “Ajebutter” school, a school for spoilt child.” Soyinka who commended Ogun government for the refurbishing and upgrading of the Fela”s family house in Abeokuta urged African governments to preserve African culture by investing in it.
Unveiling the Kuti Heritage House, Governor Ibikunle Amosun said the exercise was part of his administration’s efforts at celebrating the sons and daughters of the state. Senior Consultant to Governor Amosun on Culture and Tourism, Yewande Amusan described the Kuti Heritage House as a well thought out idea and investment to preserve the legacies of Ransome Kuti’s family as a befitting museum was put up to tell the stories of the family as a whole.
Yemisi Kuti said integrity, hard work, and others made her family to national development in various fields of human endeavour. Prof Wole Soyinka, said President Buhari recorded tremendous success in the anti-corruption battle. Soyinka said the efforts made by President Buhari in the anti-corruption battle shows that it’s no longer business as usual in Nigeria.
