By Babafemi Ojudu Friday December 5,2025 was a remarkable day in Ile-Ife. A befitting and imposing statue of Chief Obafemi Awolowo was unveiled at a strategic location on the campus of the Obafemi Awolowo University, the great institution that bears his name and which he conceived. Standing with quiet authority behind the architectural masterpiece known […]
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Veteran actress, Peju Ogunmola, has announced her return to acting months after the death of her son, Ayomikun. The actress, who is one of the respected figures in Yoruba Nollywood, lost her son, Ayomikun, prompting an outpouring of grief and tributes from colleagues across the film industry. Several Nollywood stars, including Funsho Adeolu, Foluke Daramola, […]
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Olivia Hussey Olivia Hussey, who starred as a teenage Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 film “Romeo and Juliet,” garnering her a Golden Globe, died Friday at age 73, her family announced. “Olivia was a remarkable person whose warmth, wisdom, and pure kindness touched the lives of all who knew her,” her family said in a […]
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Celebrations of a quintessential global literary giant, Prof. Wole Soyinka, received more boost with corporate brands providing support as contributing partners in the special theatre production of The Nobel Warrior – Eni Ogun, written by Aiye-ko-Ooto, directed by Oriade Adefila and produced by Cash Onadele; a performance put together in collaboration with Wole Soyinka International […]
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Jimi Solanke Barely one week after the remains of popular actor and king of Oja Village, Dejumo Lewis, was committed to Mother Earth, the arts community was thrown into another mourning mood on Monday, as it lost the veteran actor, dramatist, folk singer, poet, and playwright, Jimi Solanke, at the age of 81. The artiste […]
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By Festus Adedayo In 2018 when news sieved in that that constellation of emeriti, Prof Bankole Ajibabi Omotoso, had crept into Akure, Ondo State, our association, Ooye Development Initiative, (ODI) bated him like mousetrap does mice. Was Akure big enough to contain that hippopotamus-statured literary giant? I wondered. I, perhaps, was the most excited of […]
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Why I wrote Just Before Dawn, why South Africans call me Yebo Gogo Man and why Nelson Mandela said I was more popular than him – Kole Omotoso In this interview with Festus Adedayo, held in his Oda Road forest-like home in Akure, with no electricity and no neighbour, Bankole Ajibabi Omotoso, writer and professor, […]
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“We are mourning the loss of our father, husband, and grandfather, Prof. Bankole ‘Kole’ Omotoso, who passed away after a long period of illness in Johannesburg on July 19, 2023.” That was how the family of Kole, the late Professor of English and renowned writer, announced his death in a terse statement. “A born scholar, […]
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Obi, Sanwo-Olu celebrate icon President of Centre for Change Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin has described Nobel Laureate Prof Wole Soyinka as a genius of poesy who “captivates us in its gripping hold, not once, not twice but lifelong.” Okei-Odumakin, who is also the President of Women Arise for Change Initiative, stated this in a birthday titled […]
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By Adedamola Adedayo It’s the 13th of July, 2023, as Soyinka takes another powerful leap. Name any major literary genre, you can be sure Soyinka has his imprints there. But his legacy is most amplified in the theatrical hemisphere, where he made a name for himself as Africa’s most acclaimed playwright and became the apple […]
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