We may never have heard about Wole Soyinka if he had succeeded in killing himself with his father’s gun. It was a beautiful humble life for Wole and his father years back.
They would go for hunting in the bush to kill squirrels, the wild pigeon and occasional rabbit. Trust young boys who are curious to experiment with toys.
He had picked the gun one day and he started playing with it and when he pulled the trigger it just exploded, missing him by whiskers.
Wole who turned 80th said this to those who came for his birthday celebration in Abeokuta, Ogun state on Sunday.
His mother was not that excited with his bravery and sometimes cunning traits as a child because she believed that his overconfidence would harm him in the journey of life.
It didn’t take time for this overconfidence to put him in dire danger of his life years later, when he became a man who wouldn’t tolerate bad governance.
He said about schooldays when he was a 10 year boy with scholarship, “Those school mates of mine, they were bullies. They were terrifying because they looked big. Some of them, I am sure, had children already. Some had moustaches and so they shaved every morning.
“Whenever they turned on me, being really small, the bullying got really intense because these big boys could not stand the idea that this rondo (small) boy was sitting while others were standing.
“They couldn’t stand it. They intensified the bullying, which made me even more aggressive.”
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