DARE TO DREAM by Mr. Wole Oguntokun
Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. Daddy makes me sound like superman. That water thing that day at the beach; they say courage is the art of being the only person who knows you are afraid. I was afraid, but I watched the sea take my friend and I couldn’t stay. You know how do you leave the rest of your life? What do you have a friend for if you can’t step-up? I mean anybody here could have done that. I have forgotten that one. For a long time after that I used to have nightmares about water.
So, I noticed that the program says Wole Oguntogun’s ideas. That’s a very apt one, so I’m going to give my thoughts. I wrote the stage play; “Who is afraid of Wole Soyinka?” That was a satire of the Abacha government. It happened because I wanted a job and so, I left Lagos and went to Abuja and I saw the obscenity of wealth. I saw people bring money out of their car boots and just distribute. It wasn’t to me, it was to their crownies and I thought, you know, I have to write a satire of this government. It wasn’t a play about Wole Soyinka; it was a play about all those who thought that Nigeria could be free again from the clutches of a few. It was dedicated to the memory of Kudirat Abiola. Right! That’s that about who’s afraid?
So, I want to talk a bit about… I can see quit a number of young people here, and I’m not as young as I used to be but I still have many years to go. I want to talk about…I noticed the young man, the comedian, who went to England to charge his phone, I noticed the utopia there was going abroad which is true. There was a time I decided I was going to be an economic migrant because I discovered that it just wasn’t working here.
First of all, to succeed, you need a certain level of superiority complex. You need to know that you are good. You understand? If you don’t believe in yourself, the world would not. If you believe in yourself, the world still might not self but you must believe in yourself first before anybody thinks-okay! We can run with this person.
So I went to England. My mother lives there and my older sister. They hold British passports, two older brothers, a younger sister, so there was good company there and I thought you know how Nigeria is or you know how it used to be? It’s a mindset, you know, and so I went to England and for a long time it was good because for little money you could buy baked beans and recharge your phone. You’d be okay, but if you want to be a big man, if you aspire to be a giant, you have to remain in your land. That’s my opinion.
This is the land where Nobel Peace Prize winners call me. No one would call me in England. It’s as simple as that. If you want to go there, it’s your decision and it’s your life. I’m not saying there is anything the matter with it, but I understand, I have come to understand it that the fastest place to accelerate is in the place where they know your name.
It is where, when you don’t have you can borrow salt and matches. You cannot knock on your neighbour’s door in England and say, “give me matches”; you cannot beg the Nepa man and say, “don’t cut my light”. You will never see the man that is cutting the thing. You cannot tell the guy that comes after your TV licences that I’ll pay the thing next month; don’t serve me court summone. It is here! It is here! and if you open your mind, you can use the Nigerian system well, legitimately, free of charge.
This is where the seven degrees of separation work. I can introduce you to the president of Nigeria. I don’t know him! But I can tell Soyinka, who can help you tell someone and I know that’s the way it works. I have met your family members before. I really have, you know, and I have never met you but those are the degrees of separation. So, if you told me you wanted a job from her, I might call her relatives, her brother. Do you follow?
Right, so I want to talk about daring to dream. That’s the first step but you most also recognise what your talent is. If you are not born to be a stand-up comedian, don’t attempt it. If you don’t have timing, if you don’t have rhythm, you cannot be a stand-up comedian. If you can’t play football, you are wasting your time, you will never get to Manchester United. Better for you to be shouting in front of the TV like the rest of us. You most recognise the talent that you have. That is the first thing.
When I was in Ife, Tade Ipadeola has always been a very good friend; he has been a brother to me and has believed in me. He believed before anything happened. The first thing is to understand what your talent is. I knew mine was with the word, the spoken and the written word. I knew from a long time ago. I didn’t know how, I didn’t know where, I didn’t know when, but I knew that if I could use… I love to talk. Okay sometimes I get tired of talking, but I love to write too. I write like some people seat down and talk, that’s how I write. I can write anything. I know that I can create impressions for you from writing.
So the first thing is to understand, I think, what you have the ability to do. What is it that you wake up at night doing? What is it that you don’t care if they take light, you will do? Would you read a book? Would you go play football? Would you start fiddling with a motorcycle? What is it that drives you? And I think that is where your talent and your power lie.
I have some things here to guide me. So you find your area of strength. When I wanted to do the JAMB that took me into Ife, I had done A-Levels and then I came back and took JAMB again. I took 4 courses. It was Government, Christian Religious Studies, Literature and English and I was a bit afraid because in my opinion, I was doing 2 subjects instead of four. Do you understand? Yes I was doing Literature and English. And I thought, I don’t have to work at this so there must be something wrong and I think that is the easiest way in life. If you find your area of strength, nothing can stop you. They were my highest scores. I was doing Literature and English
I have never picked up a book on English to read. Some of you have never picked up maths books to read. You just pass. That’s your area of strength. Now if you are good at maths and you decide you wanted to be a professor of literature, you will fail. You get the idea? So you find your area of strength and you move on from there.
Now to the key, the world is full of talented people who are jobless. I’m sure you agree. The streets are full of men of talent. The streets are full of dramatists. They are full of people with PhD’s, with Master’s degrees and it seems as if there is no progress from them, for them. How come talent doesn’t always necessarily translate into success? What is the problem? I think I know: it is consistency. I think I know: it is the ability to be consistent. You cannot start and stop. You cannot start and then say it’s not working. Professor Adeoye Lambo told me once I’m a lawyer, I have two Masters degrees but I do drama because I found my area of strength and I decided that, “oju kan ni ada ni” meaning The cutlass has only one sharp end. Use that sharp end and keep on cutting. One day the tree would come down. That’s my opinion- Consistency!
It was Calvin Coolidge- one ex- vice president of the United States who said that; “the world is full of talented people, people of skill, people of talent, but they are homeless, they have no money in their pocket”. It is consistency. If you latch on to an idea, you cannot drop it because a better idea comes.
The aborigines in Australia, I heard that when they decide that they want to chase a kangaroo for meat, they pick out the kangaroo in the flock and then they start running after it. They have faith. They run after it. Through the day, through the night, till the next day, they are still running. Same kangaroo, bigger kangaroos come, they don’t pursue them, smaller kangaroos, slower kangaroos, they don’t go after them. It’s that one they’ve chosen. It’s consistency. That kangaroo when nighttime comes sleeps because he can’t see his pursuer any more. But the pursuer is still running. And that is how the Aborigine gets his kangaroo.
I would advice you all to be like Aborigines. You have to be able to pursue the dream to its end. You know that cliché thing that we see with motivational speakers and churches, ‘winners don’t quit’. It’s the truth. You cannot stop running. What happens is after a while you think “o ti su mi”, you know, this thing is not working for me or your best friend tells you; you know, maybe you better go and find a job at Zenith Bank, after all you passed well in school so what are you doing here; or your mother tells you: If it is what you love to do I think it is what you have been put on earth to do. That is the idea I have about that. Good or bad you must continue with it.
After I wrote "Who is afraid of Wole Soyimka?" I had done plays in Ife. I had written plays in Ife. After I had wrote, “Who’s afraid of Wole Soyinka?” I looked at it and I thought, it is good, just as God looked down at his word and said, fantastic! I thought, this is a good play, now I need to show it. So I looked for someone who could help me direct the first play and we did the play.
Now time and chance happened to me at that time. Professor Soyinka was in exile then. We did the play at the University of Lagos. Now, people heard about. Then someone suggested; why don’t you do it at the Muson Center? He was still in exile but his man Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi came. So, I paid for the hall. I borrowed money, paid for the hall and three days later, three days before the show, Wole Soyinka returned from exile.
I had followed my dream. I had written. It was the first thing he attended when he returned from exile. He came to see the play of a man who was not known as a play-write; a man who had never been seen before and he started it for me. It was after that I went to England to be an economic migrant because I thought; okay I’ve written a play, everybody knows, the papers carried it, it was in the Guardian and all that; ten years ago, I said okay fantastic, so this is where I become rich and famous. But nothing happened.
I went to have dinner with Soyinka. He said-“have more plantain”, I said no, he said; “eat more plantain, writers go hungry”. I didn’t know it was a prophecy. I ate plantain that day! And I went hungry after because I was trying to make it work in the arts field but I remained with what I was doing. I continued the work I was doing. I continued to do plays. I tried to raise money for plays, I tried to raise sponsorship, it didn’t work, but I kept on.
For the past six years, that was ten years ago the first play, the past six years, I have done more theatre, it is a fact… so I wouldn’t speak modestly, I have done more theatre than anybody else in the country. But, it was because I decided I was going to be consistent. It is in consistency they would know you. It is in consistency they would call your name; it is in consistency you would be great. Jack-of-all-trades! Well, if you are called to be that (like) Richard Branson, then you can do train stations and you can do drinks and you can do aeroplanes but I would advice you when you start, like he started with music, face one thing and pursue it to its logical conclusion.
So they say the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, it is to those who keep running no matter what it looks like. That is my idea. No matter how bad it seems. It is consistency that can lift you out of anything
Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. Daddy makes me sound like superman. That water thing that day at the beach; they say courage is the art of being the only person who knows you are afraid. I was afraid, but I watched the sea take my friend and I couldn’t stay. You know how do you leave the rest of your life? What do you have a friend for if you can’t step-up? I mean anybody here could have done that. I have forgotten that one. For a long time after that I used to have nightmares about water.
So, I noticed that the program says Wole Oguntogun’s ideas. That’s a very apt one, so I’m going to give my thoughts. I wrote the stage play; “Who is afraid of Wole Soyinka?” That was a satire of the Abacha government. It happened because I wanted a job and so, I left Lagos and went to Abuja and I saw the obscenity of wealth. I saw people bring money out of their car boots and just distribute. It wasn’t to me, it was to their crownies and I thought, you know, I have to write a satire of this government. It wasn’t a play about Wole Soyinka; it was a play about all those who thought that Nigeria could be free again from the clutches of a few. It was dedicated to the memory of Kudirat Abiola. Right! That’s that about who’s afraid?
So, I want to talk a bit about… I can see quit a number of young people here, and I’m not as young as I used to be but I still have many years to go. I want to talk about…I noticed the young man, the comedian, who went to England to charge his phone, I noticed the utopia there was going abroad which is true. There was a time I decided I was going to be an economic migrant because I discovered that it just wasn’t working here.
First of all, to succeed, you need a certain level of superiority complex. You need to know that you are good. You understand? If you don’t believe in yourself, the world would not. If you believe in yourself, the world still might not self but you must believe in yourself first before anybody thinks-okay! We can run with this person.
So I went to England. My mother lives there and my older sister. They hold British passports, two older brothers, a younger sister, so there was good company there and I thought you know how Nigeria is or you know how it used to be? It’s a mindset, you know, and so I went to England and for a long time it was good because for little money you could buy baked beans and recharge your phone. You’d be okay, but if you want to be a big man, if you aspire to be a giant, you have to remain in your land. That’s my opinion.
This is the land where Nobel Peace Prize winners call me. No one would call me in England. It’s as simple as that. If you want to go there, it’s your decision and it’s your life. I’m not saying there is anything the matter with it, but I understand, I have come to understand it that the fastest place to accelerate is in the place where they know your name.
It is where, when you don’t have you can borrow salt and matches. You cannot knock on your neighbour’s door in England and say, “give me matches”; you cannot beg the Nepa man and say, “don’t cut my light”. You will never see the man that is cutting the thing. You cannot tell the guy that comes after your TV licences that I’ll pay the thing next month; don’t serve me court summone. It is here! It is here! and if you open your mind, you can use the Nigerian system well, legitimately, free of charge.
This is where the seven degrees of separation work. I can introduce you to the president of Nigeria. I don’t know him! But I can tell Soyinka, who can help you tell someone and I know that’s the way it works. I have met your family members before. I really have, you know, and I have never met you but those are the degrees of separation. So, if you told me you wanted a job from her, I might call her relatives, her brother. Do you follow?
Right, so I want to talk about daring to dream. That’s the first step but you most also recognise what your talent is. If you are not born to be a stand-up comedian, don’t attempt it. If you don’t have timing, if you don’t have rhythm, you cannot be a stand-up comedian. If you can’t play football, you are wasting your time, you will never get to Manchester United. Better for you to be shouting in front of the TV like the rest of us. You most recognise the talent that you have. That is the first thing.
When I was in Ife, Tade Ipadeola has always been a very good friend; he has been a brother to me and has believed in me. He believed before anything happened. The first thing is to understand what your talent is. I knew mine was with the word, the spoken and the written word. I knew from a long time ago. I didn’t know how, I didn’t know where, I didn’t know when, but I knew that if I could use… I love to talk. Okay sometimes I get tired of talking, but I love to write too. I write like some people seat down and talk, that’s how I write. I can write anything. I know that I can create impressions for you from writing.
So the first thing is to understand, I think, what you have the ability to do. What is it that you wake up at night doing? What is it that you don’t care if they take light, you will do? Would you read a book? Would you go play football? Would you start fiddling with a motorcycle? What is it that drives you? And I think that is where your talent and your power lie.
I have some things here to guide me. So you find your area of strength. When I wanted to do the JAMB that took me into Ife, I had done A-Levels and then I came back and took JAMB again. I took 4 courses. It was Government, Christian Religious Studies, Literature and English and I was a bit afraid because in my opinion, I was doing 2 subjects instead of four. Do you understand? Yes I was doing Literature and English. And I thought, I don’t have to work at this so there must be something wrong and I think that is the easiest way in life. If you find your area of strength, nothing can stop you. They were my highest scores. I was doing Literature and English
I have never picked up a book on English to read. Some of you have never picked up maths books to read. You just pass. That’s your area of strength. Now if you are good at maths and you decide you wanted to be a professor of literature, you will fail. You get the idea? So you find your area of strength and you move on from there.
Now to the key, the world is full of talented people who are jobless. I’m sure you agree. The streets are full of men of talent. The streets are full of dramatists. They are full of people with PhD’s, with Master’s degrees and it seems as if there is no progress from them, for them. How come talent doesn’t always necessarily translate into success? What is the problem? I think I know: it is consistency. I think I know: it is the ability to be consistent. You cannot start and stop. You cannot start and then say it’s not working. Professor Adeoye Lambo told me once I’m a lawyer, I have two Masters degrees but I do drama because I found my area of strength and I decided that, “oju kan ni ada ni” meaning The cutlass has only one sharp end. Use that sharp end and keep on cutting. One day the tree would come down. That’s my opinion- Consistency!
It was Calvin Coolidge- one ex- vice president of the United States who said that; “the world is full of talented people, people of skill, people of talent, but they are homeless, they have no money in their pocket”. It is consistency. If you latch on to an idea, you cannot drop it because a better idea comes.
The aborigines in Australia, I heard that when they decide that they want to chase a kangaroo for meat, they pick out the kangaroo in the flock and then they start running after it. They have faith. They run after it. Through the day, through the night, till the next day, they are still running. Same kangaroo, bigger kangaroos come, they don’t pursue them, smaller kangaroos, slower kangaroos, they don’t go after them. It’s that one they’ve chosen. It’s consistency. That kangaroo when nighttime comes sleeps because he can’t see his pursuer any more. But the pursuer is still running. And that is how the Aborigine gets his kangaroo.
I would advice you all to be like Aborigines. You have to be able to pursue the dream to its end. You know that cliché thing that we see with motivational speakers and churches, ‘winners don’t quit’. It’s the truth. You cannot stop running. What happens is after a while you think “o ti su mi”, you know, this thing is not working for me or your best friend tells you; you know, maybe you better go and find a job at Zenith Bank, after all you passed well in school so what are you doing here; or your mother tells you: If it is what you love to do I think it is what you have been put on earth to do. That is the idea I have about that. Good or bad you must continue with it.
After I wrote "Who is afraid of Wole Soyimka?" I had done plays in Ife. I had written plays in Ife. After I had wrote, “Who’s afraid of Wole Soyinka?” I looked at it and I thought, it is good, just as God looked down at his word and said, fantastic! I thought, this is a good play, now I need to show it. So I looked for someone who could help me direct the first play and we did the play.
Now time and chance happened to me at that time. Professor Soyinka was in exile then. We did the play at the University of Lagos. Now, people heard about. Then someone suggested; why don’t you do it at the Muson Center? He was still in exile but his man Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi came. So, I paid for the hall. I borrowed money, paid for the hall and three days later, three days before the show, Wole Soyinka returned from exile.
I had followed my dream. I had written. It was the first thing he attended when he returned from exile. He came to see the play of a man who was not known as a play-write; a man who had never been seen before and he started it for me. It was after that I went to England to be an economic migrant because I thought; okay I’ve written a play, everybody knows, the papers carried it, it was in the Guardian and all that; ten years ago, I said okay fantastic, so this is where I become rich and famous. But nothing happened.
I went to have dinner with Soyinka. He said-“have more plantain”, I said no, he said; “eat more plantain, writers go hungry”. I didn’t know it was a prophecy. I ate plantain that day! And I went hungry after because I was trying to make it work in the arts field but I remained with what I was doing. I continued the work I was doing. I continued to do plays. I tried to raise money for plays, I tried to raise sponsorship, it didn’t work, but I kept on.
For the past six years, that was ten years ago the first play, the past six years, I have done more theatre, it is a fact… so I wouldn’t speak modestly, I have done more theatre than anybody else in the country. But, it was because I decided I was going to be consistent. It is in consistency they would know you. It is in consistency they would call your name; it is in consistency you would be great. Jack-of-all-trades! Well, if you are called to be that (like) Richard Branson, then you can do train stations and you can do drinks and you can do aeroplanes but I would advice you when you start, like he started with music, face one thing and pursue it to its logical conclusion.
So they say the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, it is to those who keep running no matter what it looks like. That is my idea. No matter how bad it seems. It is consistency that can lift you out of anything
Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen.
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