Nigeria, March 18 -- There is no better way of introducing Odia Ofeimun than pointedly stressing that "Odia Ofeimun is Odia Ofeimun!"

Enough said.

Poet, publisher, editor, activist, polemicist, mentor, politician, columnist, factory worker, writer, dance-drama exponent, public intellectual, critic etc, Odia Ofeimun has packed uncountable lifetimes into one tumultuous lifespan.

Born on March 16, 1950, in Iruekpen, an Esan-speaking town in Ekpoma, in present-day Edo State, Odia Ofeimun missed an entire year at the start of his primary schooling because, as was the practice then, his right hand could not cross his head and touch his left ear!

He eventually benefitted from the Free Education policy which started in the old Western Region ...