UNESCO centre: Aregbesola rejects Soyinka’s resignation

The controversy surrounding the status of the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding, Osogbo took another turn on Sunday when the Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, rejected the resignation of the Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, as the chairman of the centre’s Board of Trustees.

Soyinka had, in an earlier statement, sought the confirmation of the letter.

But according to a statement signed by the state’s Director of Bureau for  Information and Communication, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, the governor declined to accept the letter, but rather urged stakeholders to persuade Soyinka to carry on as the chairman.

The statement read, “Yes, the Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has resigned but we cannot accept the resignation even though we hold him in the highest of esteem, because of the responsibilities attached to his chairmanship of the CBCIU,  which is beyond him and even beyond us.

“It has to do with the culture and tradition of our race, which we believe that the CBCIU is meant to preserve and promote.

“We call on all people of goodwill to prevail on Prof. Soyinka, an international personage of culture, in the interest of our race, not to go ahead with his decision to resign.”

The chairmanship of the board has been a subject of controversy as former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola of the state is the chairman of the board established before he left office, and which the law that established the centre recognised.

On assuming office, the Aregbesola administration had, through the state House of Assembly, changed the law, to exclude Oyinlola and other members of the board.

Hearing in a case instituted on the matter is expected to resume on Monday (today), but Aregbesola said that the position of the law and morality was that Oyinlola could not be the board chairman in perpetuity.

Aregbesola said,  “The issue here is not difficult at all. The issue is that for whatever reason, a former governor of our state who had the vision of building that centre was misdirected to believe that he could be the perpetual chairman of the Board of Trustees, a situation that contradicts the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on any public institution.

“There is no way the constitution will permit any individual to, in his individual capacity, head at that level public institution in perpetuity. It is not done. It offends the constitution. No matter how powerful you may be, no individual can put himself in perpetual role in a public institution.”

Although efforts to reach Oyinlola on Monday did not succeed, a source close to him, who spoke on condition of anonymity, noted that Aregbesola’s claim was null and void because the centre was not a property of the Osun State Government alone.

The source said, “The UNESCO has, in a letter recently sent to the Osun State government and copied Oyinlola, stressed that the board headed by Soyinka was unknown to the law. It did this after seeking clarification from the Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Orientation. In any case, the case is coming up tomorrow (today) Monday.”