Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka on Wednesday led members of the National Association of Seadogs (NAS), popularly known as the Pyrates Confraternity, in a solemn procession to honour late literary scholar and former ASUU president Professor Biodun Jeyifo at his burial in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Video footage captured the iconic moment showing Soyinka, a founding father of the confraternity, spearheading members clad in their signature red attire as they gyrated with symbolic swords to pay tribute to their departed colleague.
The procession formed part of the funeral rites for Jeyifo, who passed away last month at age 80 following complications from renal failure.
Jeyifo, a distinguished Marxist scholar and the pioneer national president of ASUU, was widely regarded as the world’s preeminent authority on Soyinka’s literary works.
His interment at the Anglican Cemetery, St. James the Great Cathedral, Ijokodo, followed an evening of tributes at the University of Ibadan, where speakers, including Soyinka and Professor Niyi Osundare, celebrated his legacy of intellectual courage and advocacy for social justice.
