Osundare bags honour well deserved

Osundare

By ADA DIKE

Felicitations and congratulatory messages have continued to flow rivers to one of Nigeria’s literary icons, Prof Niyi Osundare, for being a recipient of the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM)  by President Goodluck Jonathan for the 2014 edition.

According to reports, President Goodluck Jonathan decorated Osundare with the award on in Abuja on December 4, 2014.

Announcing the award, the Chairman of the council of NNOM, Professor Etim Essien, described Osundare as an outstanding scholar and researcher whose service to humanity in the field of humanities has successfully carved his name in gold in the hearts of people of this nation and many nations of the world.

NNOM, according to Essien, is Nigeria’s highest and most prestigious prize for outstanding intellectual and academic attainment which has encouraged a highly significant number of the best Nigerian minds to seek accolades at home.

Many people including the Executive Governor of Ekiti State, His Excellency, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, have sent congratulatory messages to the dramatist.

Fayose described Osundare’s contributions to scholarship and research as unparalleled across the globe and added that the literary giant had carved a niche for himself as one academia that had sacrificed for the country academic to attract global respect.

Born in 1947 in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria, the essayist obtained degrees at the University of Ibadan (Bachelor of Arts), the University of Leeds (Master of Arts) and York University, Canada (Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), 1979).

The literary critic became a professor from 1989, Head of English at the University of Ibadan from 1993 to1997and became professor of English at the University of New Orleans in 1997.

Some of his publications include: Songs from the Marketplace (1983), Village Voices (1984), Moonsongs (1988), Songs of the Season (1999), Selected Poems (1992), Midlife (1993), Thread in the Loom: Essays on African Literature and Culture (2002), The Emerging Perspectives on Niyi Osundare (2003), Not My Business (2005) and Tender Moments: Love Poems (2006).

Some of the his works that won awards are: The Eye of the Earth (1986, winner of a Commonwealth Poetry Prize and the poetry prize of the Association of Nigerian Authors) and Waiting Laughters (1990, winner of the Noma Award), among others.