Nobel Laureate Prof Wole Soyinka on Friday said the National Association of Seadogs, popularly known as the Pyrates Confraternity, is not a blood-thirsty secret cult but an association established to push for justice and advance the betterment of the country.
Soyinka was instrumental in the founding of the group back in October 1952 at the University of Ibadan.
The world-renowned scholar spoke at the 26th Annual Wole Soyinka Lecture organised by Pyrates Confraternity to mark his 90th birthday.
Soyinka stated that without attitudinal change and the readiness of everyone to do the right thing, winning the war against corruption in the country would remain an impossible task.
The lecture, held at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta, had as its theme, “The Baby or the bathwater: Navigating the dark tunnels of systemic corruption to nationhood”.
Soyinka, while commenting on the lecture delivered by former minister of works and housing, Babatunde Fashola, said that the challenge of corruption was such that it ran from the top to the bottom in Nigeria, adding that only a collective decision would halt its deadly march.
He said, “The particular aspect of this lecture that struck me is corruption. Corruption is not just when you exchange money; it is a cankerworm that eats deep into the fabric of society from the top to the bottom and corrupts our very nature, our very existence.
“And one aspect of the lecture emphasised that the cure for corruption begins from the inside. Yes, we can talk about institutions, government, and the exercise of power unfairly and inordinately to the disadvantage of the rest of the community as part of corruption, but ultimately, the solution, both short-term and long-term, must begin from the inside, and this is one of the motives for establishing the Pyrates Confraternity 62 years ago.”
Soyinka, alongside the former secretary-general of the Commonwealth, Emeka Anyaoku, later unveiled a book, Ship Ahoy, written to document the 60-year history of the confraternity.
Giving his lecture earlier, Fashola described Soyinka as not only a gift to the country and the continent but to the entire civilisation.
