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Prof. TOYIN FALOLA Tells City People
When you are looking for a man who lives a lifestyle that is unique and totally different from others, the name of Professor Toyin Falola comes to mind. The world-renowned professor of history is a true definition of uniqueness. Everything about him and his many achievements sets him apart from his contemporaries. Starting from his appearance and dress sense, the profession always looks unusual while he dresses in his baggy t-shirt and native outfits. Professor Falola at 71 is a writer and teacher par excellence. He is a simple but no-nonsense man. His writings and books are highly captivating. Even the younger generation and youths, who hardly read, enjoy reading his article. They don’t miss it; they also always look forward to when he will release them. In fact, many of his readers who are young Nigerian fondly call him, “Falola Idan”, a nickname coined from one of his trending articles titled “Idan”. Some months back, Professor Falola was lucky to have survived a serious stroke. Even though he looked a bit frail, he is still very active as usual. He still writes every day. Another unique thing about him is that he is trendy and highly sociable. Being a professor of History, it is amazing that Professor Falola never took any appointment nor applied for any administration position. All he did was pure teaching. He gave all he had for teaching, a decision he carefully took at his early stage in life. When City People paid him a visit some weeks back, we got to hear him speak about why he chose to live an unusual lifestyle. Below are the excerpts:
Is there any point in time you regretted choosing teaching as a profession?
No, absolutely no because when I opted for teaching, that is the only thing that I have been doing all my life. So, as I became very popular, they began to even ask me to become the Vice Chancellor and I refused. When South Africa became independent, they were looking for a little Naudishongbo guy. We did not even apply, they were just saying there are people. Gambia, Zimbabwe, even the University of Lagos where our colleagues came. They scooped me at some point. Asking me to be their Vice Chancellor. So neither opportunities. I have never done administration. I don’t do administration. I only teach. I have never been a head of department, Dean or Provost. I have refused consistently, because I just want to teach and write my books. So you see mine is an extreme case.
Was there anybody you were looking forward to as at then, as a role model when you were building on your writing skills?
So I was running away from some aristocratic traditions. I was not looking for a role model. I just said I don’t want to become like some other people or a man. I don’t want to be looking for money. Because politicians who are around my house, NNDP! People like Akinloye, I was serving them drinks. I was listening to their conversation. And I just didn’t want to become like them. Two years ago, I don’t know whether you have been following me, I don’t know whether you’ve been following me and some people have been doing. Two years ago, I developed a series that I call Street Slogan Series. So, I will wear my tennis, walk around the city, Lagos city, crowded places like Oja Iyana Ipaja, Ayobo, Surulere; I talk with younger people, and I’ve been generating, I just released one yesterday called “Ika”. And I’ve done things like “Olosho”, “God when”, “Serving Breakfast”, “last, last” all of such. Many people have been reading them. It carried some of them when I sent it to them, but there are many. So it has also energized me because I discovered that people are reading them. I want to give a lecture at Cambridge in June. As soon as I walked in, the students said, “Falola Idan!”. “Idan Baba”, because I wrote something “Idan” . So those street slogans; “Forigbale” “Were” “Fokasibe”, So many. And I keep generating those street languages to write. And that has also given me a new form of energy because it’s a different kind of writing, connecting to the media, connecting to the youth. And I’ve done so many of them. Sometimes I will do them as part of a series. And sometimes I choose myself as a conscience of the nation. And for major issues, when they occur like that of Niger, France, and all of them, I will write a media piece. So that’s also very energizing. Different from writing my books and my poems. And I really love them tremendously.
How did you identify and develop yourself early in life?
Let’s say you work with the Yoruba fundamentals, which says Ayanmo Ni Kadara, that’s destiny. So the way it is structured is that you yourself run under destiny. But after a while, you can know like Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey knew in their very early twenties. When you self-discovered that talent, you have two options. You can let it keep flowering or you can sabotage it. Flowering, I don’t have to explain, which means you keep manifesting that destiny. Sabotage means that you leave that which you have identified as your destiny and you go and do other things. This is sabotage. Because it does not mean you are going to be good at those other things. Use Nigerian politicians as an example. They know how to steal money, right? Call that their career skill. But they don’t know how to use that money to create a business. All the businesses they create, they fail. Whether it’s agriculture, whether it’s poultry, because they don’t know that. The smartest one will say, okay, I will use the money I have stolen to get back to power. Because that’s what he knows best. Apologies for that bad example. But if you stay close to that destiny and you build passion around it, right, you will keep transforming yourself over and over and over again. And that act of transformation becomes endless. The Yorubas would say “Oun tabafese kafaseju die kun” that puts a little bit of excess in what you are good at so that you can reap the maximum benefit from it.
Apart from writing books, there are so many things you do which we see online, we see interviews and all that. How do you manage to do all these?
But they are also related. The Toyin Falola interviews have grown big. Its audience is now bigger than the best-read magazine. So I do that. I teach. I run a series coaching younger people how to write. I see their manuscript and I improve it for them. But all those are related to the same intellectual destiny that I spoke about. In other words, everything that I’m doing is a cluster. They are just intellectual. It’s not as if I’m resolving the political conflict between Wike and Fubara. Yes, that becomes a different skill set. I’m still in the same orbit of that intellectual space. And it is very energizing, extremely energizing. You write, you teach. Somebody sends you a paper, and you are thinking about the next research to do. It’s just within the same confluence. They are not disparate. That’s the way I will explain it.
Are there times you try to stay off writing or teaching?
I’ve never done that. I’ve never. There is no day I won’t write.
So how do you relax?
I relax and I play hard. I go to clubs when it’s necessary. I take long walks. I listen to music. I don’t have any problems relaxing.
What kind of music do you listen to?
Do you want me to play Davido for you? By the way, I’m going to his concert on December 24th, 2023. When I’m in Lagos, I go to Freedom park. That’s my favourite place. I watch Nigerian comic skits, from the likes of Mr. Macaroni to Visa to the people, all those comedians and all of them.
Jamiu Abubakar
(08085185886)
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