African Voices Playmakers, CNN International’s magazine programme, will this week host world renowned playwright, dramatist, poet and rights activist, Professor Wole Soyinka. The 30-minute programme is sponsored by digital solutions provider, Globacom.

The Nobel Laureate will be sharing details of the values, the ideologies and the passion that formed the foundation of his enviable life and career.

This week’s edition commemorates Professor Oluwole Akinwande Soyinka’s 90th birthday, having been born on July 13, 1934 in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

He will also regale viewers with the details of his extraordinary activism which birthed his literary works. A movie which highlights  his political incarceration in Nigeria is billed for release this year.

Having gained international repute through his books in prose, poetry and drama, Soyinka became the first African writer to win  the Nobel Laureate in Literature in 1986 for his “wide cultural perspective and… poetic overtones fashioning the drama of existence”.

As a student of the University College, Ibadan, now known as the University of Ibadan, his artistic talents had been noticeable. He later gained admission to the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom for a Master’s degree in Comparative Literature.

Added to his Nobel Prize, Soyinka also got  the Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature in 1990; Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award in 2009; Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, Lifetime Achievement, 2012, and the Europe Theatre Prize, Special Prize, 2017.

In his honour at 90, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu renamed the National Arts Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, him.

The programme will be broadcast at 8.30 a.m. on Saturday on DSTV Channel 401. Repeats will be broadcast the same Saturday at noon; Sunday at 4.30 a.m. and 7.00 p.m.; and on Monday at 4.00 a.m. Repeats will be on Saturday next week at 8.30 a.m. and 12 noon and on Sunday at 4.30 a.m. and 7.00 p.m.

Prince William and Kate Middleton are said to be secretly preparing for wearing the crowns as King Charles has reportedly decided to leave the throne for his eldest son amid worsening health challenge.

The Prince of Wales, heir to the throne, is ‘quietly preparing’ to become the new king as the monarch’s increasingly ailing condition is causing huge alarm inside the Palace, according to a news report.

The King is being asked to delegate more responsibility to Prince William, the local media reported.

“William is just as worried about his father and wants to take as much pressure off him as he can. Kate’s still being eased in, but she’s made it clear she’s keen to step up as much as possible,” according to the insider.

“It’s clear to everyone that William and Kate are quietly preparing to be king and queen themselves, and it’s only a matter of time before Charles formally hands it all over.”

“He’s already started the process and is delegating a lot more, which is why you’re seeing William’s schedule getting a lot busier.”

The Palace insider claimed: “Queen Camilla is convinced Charles is a workaholic and she’s pushing him to slow down and focus on his health.”

King Charles, who had been put on light duty following the diagnosis, has returned to his royal engagements and in September.

Queen Camilla reportedly said her husband “is doing very well,” while attending the opening of the new state-of-the-art Dyson Cancer Center at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, England.

While the King and Queen are putting on a brave face, a second insider previously told the outlet things may be more grim behind the scenes, adding: “The palace is giving the impression that Charles is on the mend, but he’s still very sick.”

William has been slowly stepping up and preparing himself to replace dad, even as Princess Kate recovers from cancer too as she announced on September 9 that she has completed preventative chemotherapy.

A former National Auditor of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP,) Barr Ray Nnaji, has warned that the party has tolerated the FCT Minister Nyesom Wike for too long.

Nnaji stated this during a media interview, while offering his view on the crisis plaguing the party.

This comes amid the challenge from Wike daring any governor or leader of the PDP to publicly call him a mole.

The minister threw the challenge when he appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme.

He had previously dared State governors elected under the platform of the PDP over his threat that he will put fire in their states.

Wike said he had no apology to anybody, insisting that heaven will not fall.

However, lamenting on what has become of the party, the former auditor stated that no right member of the PDP will commend what’s happening in the party, saying he doesn’t see Wike being in APC and the PDP at the same time.

Nnaji also said that the PDP wasted time in replacing its former National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, insisting that the vacuum created room for the crisis.

He said: “No right member of the PDP will commend what’s happening in the party.

“I don’t see Wike being in APC and the PDP at the same time. It’s the soul of Rivers State they are pursuing for the purposes of 2027.

“You know quite well that Wike used his power as a former governor to make sure that APC was assisted to come to power, that was why he was compensated with a ministerial appointment.

“He (Wike) wanted to pull the structure he had then into the APC. That explains why the APC dissolved its Rivers state executives, which prompted the members to go to the court.

“Wike himself, and those 25 State House of Assembly members who defected, when they found out that others weren’t following them, the problem in the state started.

“The main fact is that the acting Chairman failed to do what he ought to do. It cannot be blamed on the acting Chairman alone, it should be blamed on the Party entirely because the constitution is very clear.

“When a vacancy exists, what do you do? Of course, the constitution provided answers to all those things, but they failed to do it.

“Iyorchia Ayu was from North Central, when he left the position, Damagun came just to fill the gap.

“The party shouldn’t have wasted time in replacing Iyorchia Ayu. The party would have replaced Ayu with another person from that zone. If that would have been done, I don’t think we would have entered into this crisis.

“I don’t think it is as difficult with the party as it was with Amodu Sheriff, which ended up in the Supreme Court before the 2019 election.

“I still believe that the party will still come out of it, even though they didn’t do what they ought to have done early enough.”

On setting up a reconciliation committee, Nnaji had this to say: “I don’t know who they are reconciling with. Is it Wike or the governor?

“From the look of things, the government is not ready to play ball, when Wike wants the structure. And if you give Wike the structure, the governor becomes a follower of Wike.

“That is not what the governor wants, he’s supposed to be the leader of the party in the State and take charge.

“Wike, seeing what’s happening, believes he has done his parallel congress and produced a structure. Of course, the governor has his own structure, who the national picks will be another issue.

“I learnt Wike was invited to the disciplinary committee, I don’t know the outcome of the invitation but they waited too long to allow Wike to this point.

“He was not part of the formation of the party but he’s the most beneficiary of the PDP. Going ahead to seek the destruction of the party he has benefited a lot from doesn’t augur well for him, especially in the future.

“If he destroys PDP, who’s sure the APC will be a comfortable place for him to stay?

“I don’t think he’s thinking from that angle. It is his personal interest that matters most for him now.

“The PDP has to make sure it puts its house in order to see if it can liberate the country come 2027.”