Photos: Wole Soyinka meets rusticated UNILAG student, calls him “my prison mate”

Adeyeye Olorunfemi spent days in Kirikiri Prison after he was arrested, alongside others, for protesting on behalf of blind student University of Lagos (UNILAG) authorities wrongfully suspended.

Adeyeye himself is serving a four semester rustication for criticizing the way UNILAG clamped down on students who demanded improvement in basic amenities on campus.

Since his ordeal began, Adeyeye, has become the face of student activism in Nigeria. He recently hung out with “senior activist” Wole Soyinka in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

“I know you so well. I read you on magazines. You are my prison mate.” Adeyeye told Newsroom Soyinka, a world renown Nobel Laureate, said those words to him.

We haven’t reached Soyinka to confirm if he said the words. But we have photos of Adeyeye and Kongi himself on the set of Onyeka Nwelue’s show where the activists met.

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The meeting took place on Democracy Day.

“I thought the interview was going to be in another language besides the English Language,” Adeyeye said.

“How do I speak English before Wole Soyinka? Where do I start from?

“I was practically calculating the number of words I uttered, relating it with time as if I was calculating velocity. I thank the Prof. for not scolding me for my grammatical blunders,” Adeyeye said.

He added that meeting Soyinka reignited his belief and zeal in speaking up for the downtrodden.

Adeyeye has, since his release from Kirikiri Prison, secured freedom for inmates whom he believed were wrongfully jailed by the government. One of the inmates was a teenager imprisoned for “having no means of livelihood”. He had help from other activists.