Prof Bode Sowande
“I launch these four books with thirty cows” , with these words Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu Usman launched four books by Aminu Kayode Alilu. “I am a Fulani and I launch these books with thirty cows. Find grass for them to graze.”
Aminu Kayode Alilu gracefully entered the Guiness Book of Records as the only author in the world whose book launch is endowed with thirty cows. The four titles are THE WISE MAN’S SCRIPTURES, prose, THE TONGUE SILENCE, drama, THE GLOBAL BUGABOO, poetry, and ARROWS IN THE SHADDOWS, drama.
The Fulani patron of the arts also brought out of his deep pockets a princely quantum of Naira in six figures.
And other attendees contributed vagaries, huge, medium and respectable towards this programme.
The post script to my Opening Remarks will address the subthemes in the felicitations for Barrister Aminu Kayode Alilu of Kogi State. Everyone would salute his creative talents and his eminence as a brilliant young prosecutor of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Abubakar Malami, The Attorney General of Nigeria sent a visible representation with an eloquent speech.
Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo sent his son Abisoye, who delivered Baba’s message of goodwill with a promise of a confidential book launch favour towards the author .
The hall was brimful and the programme lasted for over five hours that were spanned by artistic performances.
The eminent patrons of the arts comprised members of the law profession, artistes, the town and the gown; the town with deep pockets and the gown with “egg heads”.
Royal Father of The Day was PARAMOUNT RULER OF IWOLAND, OBA (DR) ABDULROSHEED ADEWALE AKANBI whose speech brought the political microscope on the burning issues in our Nation Nigeria.
Every speaker had that subtext of the need for a discourse and resolution of what should continue to hold us together.
Aminu Kayode Alilu with his artistic creativity magnetised a patronage who boldly supported the arts and voiced contemporary politics. I noticed that the lawyers spoke very little politics while celebrating one of their own.
The author as the Founder, President & Executive Director of GIPELP (Grassroots Initiative for Poverty Eradication & Liberation of the Poor) with mandates to provide empowernment, livihood support, relief services and rural/Ghetto infrastructural interventions for indigent persons and rural people
Aminu Kayode Alilu has ongoing assistance to orphanages.
And so my OPENING REMARKS spoke directly to him( and of course, indirectly to his huge audience).
THE MUSE and INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY will be my focus as I address this author and congratulate him for his output of four titles.
The two phenomena of THE MUSE and INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY touch our lives even if we are unaware of them all the time.
We can own only three types of property in life, namely Immovable, Movable, and Intellectual . The most priceless and perhaps respected is Intellectual Property.
Everyone listening to me has immovable property, but not everyone owns intellectual property.
This writer Aminu Kayode Alilu has Intellectual Property aplenty.
This is the catch . Behind the creation of every kind of property is THE MUSE.
Google the word Muse and you will have a simple meaning of THE MUSE.
For our purpose the Muse is that non material essence that is there forever, serving every generation in the process of creation and creativity.
THE MUSE is at the root of the shape of the ball pen and its impact upon its usage for writing.
It is the same phenomenon that gives the design of every component of a beautiful automobile.
THE MUSE fuses with technology to effect the perfect function of the car.
The garments and even undergarments worn by persons in this assembly are inspired by THE MUSE.
The musician has the root definition of his talents in THE MUSE, that has also triggered what I am now reading.
My MUSE and I are one and will remain one till end of life. THE MUSE is everywhere and it is cosmic in essence. It is very generous as it gives to humanity ,through the creation and creativity of beauty, functions and the passions of existence.
It is only by this essence that the intellectual property of Aminu Kayode Alilu has assumed the sum total of his four books being launched today.
Here is the challenge for us all who have been favoured by THE MUSE; and we have all been favoured .
If the generosity of creativity is everywhere what does THE MUSE expect of us in return?
Nothing is free in the universe. Someone always pays for that free thing.
The price the universe requests is a generosity of heart towards our common humanity , candour in the enterprise of the market place , fairness in the administration of justice , and security through obedience and enforcement of the law.
The exclusion of any or all of these moves us away from THE MUSE, bringing down a pall of darkness. THE MUSE remains in its light and does not punish. The crime punishes the criminal with the scales of Karma.
These remarks speak to Nigeria or any society, and above all speak to you Aminu Kayode Alilu, a creative writer , a barrister in the present political space of Nigeria.
In Nigeria today even the creative writer can be at fault in spite the generosity of THE MUSE. A writer may steal an immovable property(land or buildings). So huge is the scale of corruption of our times. Such writers who run afoul of the law are soon excluded and eclipsed from the eternal creative light of THE MUSE.
Almighty God is at the heart of THE MUSE.
Aminu Kayode Alilu you have made THE MUSE happy with your four books, while your generosity to orphanages is consistent. The universe will reward you with contentment and fame that soon overtakes the future. I congratulate you.
Ahaji Usman the Fulani Elder who launched the books with thirty cows , his eyes glinting with wit, opened a subtle political discourse that is very current.
Other speakers would key in.
ROYAL FATHER , PARAMOUNT RULER OF IWOLAND said it well. “Amighty God is the ruler!”
We should add that the politicians are “custodians of power”.
Nigerian politicians are the same, no matter the name of the party. Only the logo differs. We are looking for distinct ideologies.
If each party re-invents itself may be ideologies may emerge.
Presently the Fulani Cows are centerstage of the political discourse. And little did we know that Fulani Cows would enter the Guiness Book of Records as the currency with which four brilliant books are launched.
Nigeria now has that record.
The same Fulani Cows with their horns have formed the compass of Yoruba separatist movement as espoused by Sunday Igboho.
By Fulani cows we shall see the stress in finding the perfect centre for political co-existence.
OLU IWO affirmed that the bandits of the forests have been bred by decades of non-educational empowerment. They have become villains who created an industry out of kidnapping. This has nothing to do with Islamisation for a new caliphate.
Tagging along are the ritualists who use cadavers of unransomed victims for money making fetish.
How did Nigeria create this abyss of evil in our political space?
THE ROYAL FATHER would urge that we focus on what unites us and I would add we should urgently have a SELF UNTO SELF DIALOGUE.
Democracy continues to be a work in progress; it has no cast iron finality.
It began in Ancient Greece as a successful challenge to the monarchy. The word “Demos” means people and “Kratos” is power; making Democracy PEOPLE POWER. However, the Greeks always aimed at the superlative and they soon identified active participants in civic , social and political activities as CITIZENS , while those who were laser focused on their private business or common affairs as IDIOTS.
Contemporary political thinkers are increasingly promoting the word idiot as a description of that person who refuses to be socially active in the determination of the collective political destiny.
Every commentator at the book launch was therefore a CITIZEN and not an idiot.
If we quickly engage in the pan Nigerian dialogue, we can be angry with anyone who calls us idiots! I am hopeful , indeed prayerful that we shall all end being called CITIZENS of a truly democratic Nigeria, rather than being THE IDIOTS on the refuse dump of HISTORY.
It is on the theme of History that I end my postscript of this most engaging Book Launch.
Humanity is evolving into a Federation of Nations. As the economic unions consolidate, decades from now we shall have a Federation of African States. Perhaps ten decades from now or a little less, with the accomplishment of the Pan African Union of Kwame Nkrumah’s vision.
Corruption is the poison, and fracturing into micro republics deludes us into utopia that are never there, will never be there.
Security is always provided through administration of Justice, provision of social supports ,educational empowerment, accessible health care system, obedience and enforcement of the law AND DIALOGUE to re-invent ourselves.
