Nigeria, Feb. 16 -- The inaugural lecture of Professor Wole Soyinka in the 1980/81 period at the then University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, was expectedly explosive. Its title, "The Critic and society: Bathes, Leftocracy and Other Mythologies", left no one in doubt that this was an ideological offensive.

It was the famous writer's nuclear-powered intellectual attack against Leftists who had asserted themselves as a dominant force in the academic and student circles on campus.

Although the missiles were targeted at the Left community led by respected historian, Dr. Segun Osoba, some were also fired at academics who seem to have one leg in the Leftist camp, and the other, outside.

A student journal in reporting the lecture ...