Narrative as Cartography: Enlarging Human Vision through Fiction
By Professor Stephen Adebayo Ogunpitan
Professor of English
*The 130th Inaugural Lecturer, Professor Stephen Adebayo OGUNPITAN during his lecture.*
Protocols
My highly esteemed Vice Chancellor, Deputy Vice-Chancellors (Academic and Admin), Registrar, Dean of Arts and other Deans, fellow members of this great academic community, my dear family members and friends, respectable ladies and gentlemen.
Opening Salutations
I would like to express my gratitude to the Vice-Chancellor Professor Olawunmi Ayodeji Badejo for taking time out of her busy schedule to be here, and for the kind words she has said by way of introduction. Thank you, ma.
To friends and members of my family, welcome to LASU, the most vibrant cosmopolitan university in Africa; the place I have proudly called my academic home for the past forty years.
I feel deeply honoured and immensely grateful to stand here, not only to fulfil a ceremonial rite of passage, but to reflect, declare, and share the intellectual journey that has brought me to this moment. This lecture is not just a personal milestone; it is a literary mapping of the territory I have travelled as a scholar of narrative fiction, with war fiction at its centre. I thank God for the gift of language that makes meaning possible, and for the enduring discipline of literature which helps us to decode the many texts of human life.
The World as God’s Literary Masterpiece
Before I begin, I humbly bow in reverence to the One who authored existence itself-God, the ultimate Artist and Interpreter of all creation. He who penned the galaxies into the skies and wrote the seasons into time, whose narratives are not confined to pages but unfold in the living stories of humanity and history. He is the Eternal Word, whose script breathes life, meaning, and purpose into all things. As a scholar of narrative fiction, I acknowledge that every story we tell echoes fragments of His grand narrative. Every metaphor, every symbol, every character arc in literature is a dim reflection of His eternal creativity. To Him belongs all glory, for He is the First Author, the Ultimate Interpreter and the Final Editor. He is the supreme Poet, Playwright and Narrator. All adoration to the Writer whose narrative has most profoundly shaped me. To the generous dispenser of knowledge and wisdom, I doff my cap.
I have come to see that the entire creation is not merely an act of power, but of profound literary imagination. In Genesis, the world comes into being through speech: 'And God said...' -a declaration that underscores the creative potency of language. The universe is born from speech-the first act of literature, the first poetic utterance. The cosmos unfolds as a living narrative, rich with metaphor, conflict, and resolution. Our lives are stories in His hands, full of conflict and resolution, exile and return, suffering and hope, judgment and salvation.
He, through Christ, enters the human story not just as its Author, but as its Protagonist. This is the Christian paradox: the Author writes Himself into the narrative, so that the broken text of our world might be redeemed from within.
As the first Cartographer and Narrator, God told mankind the first, shortest, and most powerful story ever told in the history of mankind. “You were taken from the dust, and you will return to the ground” (Gen. 1:19). Short as it is, it contains the essential structural patterns of all plots; an exposition, a climax and a denouement. It is a historical narrative of what happened in the past, the current action and the future – in other words, mankind’s GPS and TELESCOPE. I will return to this concept later.
By being a literary scholar and a professor of narrative fiction, I am simply a servant of God, doing what the Almighty Himself started and continues doing. I am a literary priest, a rabbi, in the sanctuary of literary tropes. My academic discipline and pursuit are, therefore, not only divine, but an act of worship. We are essentially creatures of story, made in the image of a storytelling God. So, when we write, read, or teach stories, we participate in a divine tradition. We are co-authors in the ongoing drama of existence. This perspective has given my work a sacred dimension.
Eulogy for three Academic Predecessors
I must pause briefly to honor three intellectual giants whose footsteps I now follow-three scholars whose voices once rang from this very podium, delivering inaugural lectures that lit the way for those of us who came after.
Professor Adeleke Adelekan FAKOYA, Professor Gabriel Ajenifuja OSOBA and Professor Ayotunde Olutumbi AYODELE; they are more than professors of English. They are custodians of language, stewards of culture, and architects of thought. Each, in their own unique way, helped to shape the soul of this department-not only through their scholarship and teaching, but through their quiet dignity, their unshakable commitment to scholarship, and their enduring belief in the power of the written word. They exemplified the scholar as explorer, teacher, and builder of ideas. “A three-fold cord, as it is said, is not easily broken”.
I have the special privilege to present the 1st Inaugural Lecture in the Literature Unit of the Department of English, and on this occasion, I like to remember the late Dr. Rotimi JOHNSON whose intellectual courage, vision, conviction and academic achievements challenge us all to think more deeply, read more widely, and teach more passionately. In remembering this departed colleague today, I do so not as a mere ceremonial gesture, but in recognition that my voice today is a continuation of the lineage of thought, a continuity of purpose, a living tradition of brilliance and grace.
The very first inaugural lecture in English here at LASU (October 2018) was described by the lecturer himself as a "babble." By now, however, a child who babbled eight years earlier would be expected to speak with more clarity, equanimity and fluency. Babbling and the Bow-Wow Theory may belong to the domain of linguistics, but fluency, aesthetic elegance, and the artistry of expression are the proper concerns of literature. As my grandfather would often say, an eight-year-old child who has not yet learned to walk, let alone run, would be considered lame. It is therefore fitting that, eight years after that inaugural "babble," we now aspire to a voice that builds up on that strong and articulate foundation worthy of the discipline we represent.
Vice Chancellor ma, like Geoffrey Chaucer’s Pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, I, too, will begin with a story.
Story, story.
Story!
The story I am about to tell you is true. As Fella Anikulapo would say, “I want to tell you a story, no be story o.” In fact, it is so unusual that even my closest friends here at LSAU may have let it slip from memory-or perhaps preferred not to remember it at all. We have never talked about it or referred to it.
It happened in September 1995, during a time when Nigeria’s air was heavy with suspicion, and the corridors of power echoed with the sound of boots and whispers.
One day, without warning, certain visitors arrived at LASU. They were not here for academic collaboration, and they did not carry briefcases. They carried orders. They were looking for someone-and that someone was me.
I will tell you the full account in due course. For now, let us proceed with this lecture. And when we return to the story, you will see how the events of that day are curiously and powerfully connected to the very subject we explore today. When I chant “story, story, or aloo o,” please respond enthusiastically, to show that you are really here for me and have not dozed off or immersed in your Facebook, WhatsApp or the TikTolk.
Foundational Curiosity
When I first encountered literature, I didn’t know it would become both my intellectual and emotional compass, guiding my curiosity and engagement through the wilderness of my academic journey. Today, I do not come merely to speak about literature, but to speak from literature-pointing to its power to witness, to shape consciousness, and to hold a mirror up to both the soul and society. I am both a scholar and a witness to its enduring power.
The seeds of this moment were planted over five decades ago, when as a secondary school student, I began frequenting the British Council Library in the ancient city of Kano. In those quiet aisles, I met Shakespeare, Chaucer and Dickens. Without knowing it, I was stepping into a vast constellation of human imagination—one that would later guide my life’s journey. Shakespeare taught me the complexities of the human heart, Dickens revealed the moral maps of society, and Chaucer showed that the road of storytelling is as rich as the destination. These works became the early GPS of my intellectual voyage, quietly calibrating my sense of direction in the vast ocean of knowledge. At the age of sixteen, I could easily, recite, offhand, significant portions of Julius Caesar, The Merchant of Venice, and Macbeth.
Later, as I encountered science fiction, I realized it was not only a compass but also a telescope-projecting visions far beyond the horizon of the present. What began as boyhood reading for pleasure became the training ground for recognizing literature’s power to both locate us in the moral landscapes of our time and project us into the uncharted futures of human possibility. From those British Council Library shelves to this podium today, the journey has been one long navigation—proof that the maps we study in youth can chart the courses of our lives.
It is this dual capacity of literature-to anchor us where we are and to launch us toward where we might be-that lies at the heart of my talk today. Just as the GPS fixes our current coordinates and the telescope reveals distant worlds, literature, and particularly science fiction, operates on these two planes. It interprets the present, offering maps through the moral, social, and political landscapes of our age; and it imagines the future, projecting scenarios, innovations, and possibilities beyond our immediate sight. In the same way my early readings at the British Council Library helped to locate me intellectually and morally. Likewise, science fiction helps to locate the society historically and technologically. Today, I invite you to join me as we explore how literature serves as both navigator and visionary—guiding humanity’s voyage on Earth and beyond.
Declaration of Interest
The title of this lecture, “Narrative as Cartography: Enlarging Human Vision through Fiction,” is not an ornamental metaphor. It reflects my deepest conviction: that literature is neither a luxury, nor a retreat from life, but one of the most vital instruments we possess for navigating its chaos and glimpsing its possibilities. It is an exploration of how literature helps us to navigate and to envision life itself. Indeed, the alternative title for this lecture would have been: “Of Footprints and Foreknowledge: Literature as GPS and Telescope of Earthly Voyage.”
There are two instruments humanity has long relied upon for orientation. One of them is the compass that guides us through the terrain of the known. The second is the telescope which reveals to us the possibilities of what lies ahead. Literature, I submit, performs both functions. It is our GPS through complex terrains of identity, conflict, gender, morality, and tradition. But it is also our telescope; daring us to imagine, to dream, and to forecast what has not yet come to pass. Literature is humanity’s lens-crafted not of glass and steel, but of language, memory, imagination, and empathy. Through it, we do not merely observe life; we understand it more fully. We do not merely look; we see.
Declaring My Compass: War Fiction as Critical Territory
I declare, and without any ambiguity, that my principal research focus and breakthrough lie in the study of war fiction-specifically, the ways in which fiction narrates, interrogates, and memorializes war. My work is shaped by an abiding interest in how societies remember conflict, how individuals carry its burden, and how literature processes what history often suppresses. In war fiction, we encounter not only the bang of gunfire but the quiet aftershock of grief. We meet soldiers who are also sons, mothers who mourn, and societies that stagger under the weight of unhealed wounds.
Sitting at the intersection of narrative theory, trauma and violence studies, my academic journey has been a sustained exploration of conflict in its varied manifestations: the war fought on the battlefield, the war waged between the sexes, and the battle for the minds and the soul of the youth. These seemingly distinct domains converge in literature, where human struggles over power, identity, justice, love, and the future are imaginatively represented and critically examined. It is in this field that I have made my most enduring contributions.
Vice Chancellor, Ladies and gentlemen, I am neither a combatant soldier nor a lover of violence. I am an interpreter of the literary representations of conflicts and the moral crises of what happens out there on battlefields. I have spent years immersed in stories born from conflict, displacement and moral collapse. What I have found is that even amid such darkness, literature lights the way. It orients us. It opens our eyes to the psychological landscapes of soldiers and civilians alike. The profit of war fiction lies not in the glorification of violence, but in the access to the untold stories behind the quiet suffering and the moral reckoning beneath the roar of gunfire.
A Literary Lineage and Priesthood of War Witnesses
As a specialist in war fiction, I find myself in unexpected kinship with the Apostle John. Though I write not from vision but from historical fiction, not from exile but from texts, we are both interpreters of conflict. Apostle John wrote of a Great War in heaven, as he said: “Michael and his angels fought against the dragon… and the dragon was cast out” (Rev. 12:7–9). His narrative is one of the earliest and most symbolic war narratives in the canon of sacred literature. This was no ordinary war, it was the origin of conflict. I explore wars-not only between nations but within nations, within families, within the human soul. In this way, the Apostle John and I are narrators of war-one cosmic, the other earthly, but both addressing the human (and more-than-human) cost of conflict. The Apostle John and I belong, therefore, in the literary priesthood of war witnesses.
The Literary Critic as Interpreter: My Own Chariot Ride
Vice Chancellor, there is a moment in the Acts of the Apostles that has long spoken to me, not just as a person of faith, but as a literary critic. It is the image of Philip the Evangelist encountering the Ethiopian Eunuch on a desert road, a man reading Isaiah’s prophecy aloud in his chariot. "Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?" (Acts 8:30). This question, posed over two thousand years ago on a dusty path, still echoes today, particularly in lecture halls and classrooms.
Just as the Ethiopian Eunuch was on a literal and spiritual journey, so too is every reader on a journey through the text. The scriptures he read were complex, layered, and rooted in history, prophecy, and poetic imagery, much like literary texts.
As a literary critic, I stand in the tradition of Philip (and of course, of Joseph and Daniel) the one who listens to the students' struggle, joins them on their journey, and illuminates meaning. The Ethiopian Eunuch represents all readers who approach literature with questions. He is the modern student, the general reader and seeker. But meaning does not live in isolation within the text. It is revealed in the relationship between the text, the reader, and the interpreter or the critic. The reader is not a passive recipient but a navigating subject. Just as GPS requires input and engagement, literature requires interpretation, re-reading, and critical positioning.
My duty is to analyze and interpret, draw connections between text and context, make the unseen visible and bring distant voices near. I have encountered texts that perplexed and haunted me. And I too have been blessed by the presence of ‘Philips’—mentors, teachers, authors, even students-who helped me to understand what I read.
Vice Chancellor ma, permit me, at this point, to pause and honour four of my own “Philips”—those who, like the Apostle on the Gaza Road, ran beside my chariot and opened to me the meaning of the written word.
First among them is Professor Willfried Feuser (1928–2000)-that eminent German scholar of Comparative Literature, married to a Nigerian, who devoted almost all his adult life to the University of Port Harcourt where he was finally laid to rest. Next is my beloved teacher, Professor Charles Nnolim (passed away in 2025), one of the finest interpreters and sharpest minds in African literary scholarship. Then, the erudite Professor Theo Vincent, and the late Dr. Emmanuel Babalola both of the Department of English, University of Lagos.
These were the human cartographers, compasses and telescopes who set my course and sharpened my vision, so that I too might help others navigate the uncharted seas of literature. From them I learned that the text is both a map and a mystery. Today, I find myself stepping, hesitantly yet resolutely, into their footprints: not as one who has “arrived,” but as one who walks alongside fellow readers, attentive to the heartbeat of the text and ready to offer insight where I can.
And if, in my own time, I have managed to guide even one reader as they once guided me, then I, too, have run well beside the chariot. To my colleagues in the fellowship of literary theory and criticism, I pass on the ancient, searching question: “Understandest thou what thou readest?”
Literature imparts Life Lessons
Long before I read Shakespeare or Achebe, I first discovered the affective power of literary composition in the small Sunday school of my childhood home church. I may have forgotten many sermons, but this particular story has never left me.
My Sunday school teacher told this story in 1970 just after the Biafra–Nigeria Civil War. I was twelve years old. He told us of an old man who gave each of his sons five shillings. They squandered it and returned for more. He gave them one extra shilling, warning them to spend it well, for he was keeping the last shilling for himself. But the boys ganged up, raided his treasury, and found the only one shilling left.
“The old man,” the teacher said, “is God. The five shillings are Monday to Friday. The extra shilling is Saturday. And the last shilling-Sunday-belongs to Him. But we take it for ourselves.” The point was unmistakable: Sunday is God’s Day.
That was my first conscious childhood encounter with the power of a story to orient and to open up vistas more brightly. That fictional narrative brought into sharp focus a truth often blurred by daily life-that the sacred must not be stolen for the profane.
When we study the novel-I prefer to use study here because there is a difference between those of us who read the novel professionally and others who just read it for entertainment. So, when we study the novel, we are exposed to a lot of things going on in the mind of the characters that are representations of real human beings. Texts reflect the nature of society and even the nature of individuals in the society. In fact, texts reflect values in society. Therefore, if one studies fiction one possibly understands society and the individuals that make them up. One understands the differences and similarities among peoples. One understands the root causes of many things that bedevil society.
Texts are keys to the different worldviews of peoples, their emotions, fears and anxieties as well as the evolutionary events that have brought them to the present point in their historical development. We gain Insight from these and become sensitized enough to engage the issues with a view to making a change.
In fact, we all need to understand that everything in life revolves around the story. For example, if two people are fighting and you come to intervene, you will possibly ask them to say why they were fighting. They will definitely tell you a story. When you see a heap of rubbish dumped on the road so much as to cause a traffic jam, everybody will be talking about it. When stories are told, it is intended that people‘s consciousness regarding a particular situation is heightened.
Relevance, Impact and future research
In an era still marked by war, displacement, and the struggle for meaning, literature remains essential-not only as a historical record, but as an ethical instrument, a space where we rehearse empathy, reckon with trauma, and imagine peace. War fiction allows us to excavate the emotional truths buried beneath military statistics and geopolitical strategies. Whether chronicling ancient epics, colonial conquests, world wars, or speculative futures, my field remains relevant because conflict, sadly enough, remains a persistent human reality. In every generation, new wars emerge-but so too must new readers, thinkers, and peace-builders who understand them.
The volume of war fiction will increase in the future, especially given the current climate of geopolitical instability, global tensions, and the resurgence of authoritarianism and nationalism. As wars, clashes, kidnapping, terrorism continue to dominate global headlines, novelists are likely to respond with narratives that capture, not only the emotional toll on civilians and soldiers, but also the collapse or resilience of moral codes during such conflicts.
Writers may increasingly turn to military science fiction to explore cyberwarfare and AI-controlled armies, space colonization and interstellar wars. In the novel titled Red Mars, written in 1992 by Kim Stanley Robinson, the ensuing conflict is over the colonization of the planet Mars. In the story, a multinational group of scientists and engineers are sent to Mars to establish a permanent settlement. As they begin building the infrastructure for human life on Mars, conflicts arise between Earth-based governments, corporations, and the Martian colonists over control and ideology. Wherever there is war, there will be stories. As today's conflicts escalate and evolve, literature will inevitably respond, not only to entertain, but to make sense of chaos and chart moral paths through it.
Domestic warfare
Even within the seemingly peaceful borders of our own household, there is always an interminable miniature civil war. Among young children, alliances are forged and broken with alarming speed. Provocations may escalate over territory as small as a chair or a toy, or over the remote control, or the last slice of bread. Temporary truces last only until the next struggle begins. These domestic squabbles, while innocent and often comical, echo the deeper impulses that drive larger human conflicts: the desire for control, the struggle for space, and the instinct to assert self.
In Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides (1993), the sisters form secretive alliances, resist parental control, and rebel against restrictions, representing a kind of siege within the home. This reminds us that the “wars” waged within the borders of the family-comic, innocent, and sometimes fierce-are microcosms of the deeper human struggle for control, recognition, and survival. As Sigmund Freud suggested in his notion of the “family romance,” and as René Girard later argued in his theory of mimetic rivalry, the intimate sphere of the household is the seedbed from which broader patterns of human violence emerge.
The story of Cain and Abel, for instance, is a classic study of family crisis: betrayal, jealousy, and evil. It touches on sibling rivalry, domestic violence, the “model” child versus the “problem” child, guilt, remorse, envy, lying, self-pity, harboring a grudge, giving in to evil impulses — to mention but a few. From it we understand that crime will be punished. That story gave us the archetypal pattern of the crime-and-punishment story. The author introduces the criminal (Gen. 4, verses 1-4a), gives a motive for the crime (verses 4b-5), describes the crime itself (verse 8), and the arrest, trial, and sentencing (verses 9-12), as well as Cain’s ultimate punishment (verse 16).
(Alo o, alooo…)
You will recall, at the start of this lecture, I spoke of certain “visitors” who came to LASU in September1995, looking for me with an urgency that had nothing to do with marking scripts.
It is time to remove the veil.
The order for that search had come from none other than the then Military Head of State, General Sani Abacha himself, with instructions that I be captured dead or alive.
Yes… you heard me correctly.
On that day, the pages of my life’s story briefly slipped from the genre of academic memoir into the chapter of political thriller.
And though I lived to tell the tale, indeed, to turn it into part of this lecture, the experience left me with a deeper understanding of how power, fear, and narrative intertwine in the theatre of human affairs.
(Just keep tuned in. I’ll finish that personal episode).
Science Fiction as a Telescope of the Future
My engagement with science fiction literature has convinced me that it possesses a remarkable prophetic gift: the ability to imagine tomorrow before tomorrow arrives. Science fiction serves as a conceptual laboratory-a space where writers test possibilities long before they become scientifically or technologically achievable. It is a literature of prophetic imagination, inviting humanity to envision futures that later become realities.
Many of today's scientific and technological breakthroughs were inspired by ideas first imagined in science fiction. It is now widely acknowledged that the genre has influenced innovation in fields such as:
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Physics
Computer Science
Communications
Military Strategy
Bioengineering
Space Exploration
The Mobile Phone
Science fiction does more than entertain; it maps worlds that do not yet exist, charts possibilities that humanity has not yet explored, and enlarges the boundaries of what the human mind can imagine. It is, in a profound sense, the literature of what might be.
Through the imaginative manipulation of science, technology, space, and time, science fiction enables humanity to travel beyond the limitations of its immediate environment. The genre has consistently transformed the seemingly impossible into an imaginative possibility. Its writers are explorers who venture into the future with the compass of speculation and return with maps of potential human destinies.
It is at once a map of territories yet to be discovered and a telescope through which humanity glimpses possibilities beyond the limitations of its present existence. It is, in essence, the cartography of the future and the enlargement of human vision.
As cartography, science fiction maps imaginary worlds, anticipates technological developments, and charts possible destinations of human civilization. Through the creative power of the imagination, writers construct landscapes of future societies, interplanetary voyages, artificial intelligence, and technological transformations. These imagined territories may not yet exist, but they provide intellectual maps through which humanity can navigate the uncertainties of tomorrow.
Elon Musk: Inspired by Science Fiction, Driven by Engineering
Science fiction has had a well-documented influence on Elon Musk's imagination and long-term ambitions. He has repeatedly acknowledged that science fiction shaped the kinds of problems he wanted to solve and inspired him to pursue ambitious engineering projects.
When SpaceX launched Musk's Tesla Roadster into space in 2018, a physical copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy accompanied the payload, symbolizing the enduring relationship between imaginative fiction and technological achievement.
Musk's vision of making humanity a multiplanetary species reflects themes long explored in classic science fiction. He has often remarked that reading science fiction as a child broadened his perspective on humanity's future and motivated his work through SpaceX toward making life beyond Earth a practical possibility.
In many respects, science fiction became a roadmap for many of the engineering achievements we witness today.
Science Fiction and Real-world Developments
Science Fiction Text
Fictional Invention
Real-world Development
From the Earth to the Moon – Jules Verne (1865)
Moon landing via space capsule
Apollo 11 Moon landing (1969)
The World Set Free – H.G. Wells (1914)
Atomic bombs and chain reactions
The Manhattan Project; nuclear weapons
2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke (1968)
Artificial intelligence, orbiting space stations, tablet-like devices
Siri/Alexa, International Space Station, modern tablets
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury (1953)
Earbud-like radios, interactive media walls
Wireless earbuds, smart TVs, immersive media
Neuromancer – William Gibson (1984)
Cyberspace, hacking, digital avatars
The Internet, hacking culture, virtual reality
I, Robot – Isaac Asimov (1950)
Robotics, ethical AI laws ('Three Laws of Robotics')
Robotics ethics research, AI safety protocols
A Prophetic Shipwreck: Fiction as Foresight
Vice Chancellor, Ladies and Gentlemen, let me refer to one more astonishing example of fiction projecting the future with haunting accuracy. The British fiction writer Morgan Robertson, wrote a short novel in 1898 titled Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan. This was a clear fourteen years before the Titanic met its tragic fate in the North Atlantic. In this novel, Robertson accurately predicted an immense British ocean liner, named the Titan, which he described as “unsinkable.” The ship struck an iceberg and sank with massive loss of life due to inadequate lifeboats. What makes this fictional account remarkable is not only the similarity in name-Titan vs Titanic-but also the chilling alignment in ship size, speed, route, month of disaster (April), and the hubristic confidence in man's technological superiority over nature.
Similarities: Fiction (1898) vs Titanic (1912)
Theme/Event
Futility (1898) – The Titan
Titanic (1912) – Historical Reality
Ship Name
The fictional ship is called the Titan.
The real ship is called the Titanic.
Size & Prestige
Titan is the largest ship ever built, described as a marvel of modern engineering.
Titanic was the largest ship of its time, hailed as a technological wonder.
Reputation
Titan is declared 'unsinkable.'
Titanic was widely considered 'unsinkable.'
Voyage
Titan sails on a transatlantic route between Britain and New York.
Titanic sailed on her maiden transatlantic voyage from Southampton to New York.
Collision
Titan strikes an iceberg in the North Atlantic.
Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic.
Time of Year
Titan disaster happens in April.
Titanic struck the iceberg on April 14, 1912.
Speed
Titan travels at high speed despite iceberg warnings.
Titanic maintained near full speed (22+ knots) despite iceberg warnings.
Lifeboats
Titan carries far fewer lifeboats than needed (about half capacity).
Titanic carried lifeboats for only about half of the 2,200+ on board.
Casualties
The majority of Titan’s passengers die due to lack of lifeboats.
Over 1,500 lives lost, largely because of insufficient lifeboats and freezing waters.
Survivors
A small number survive, clinging to wreckage in the icy sea.
About 705 survivors were rescued, many clinging to wreckage and lifeboats.
Symbolism
Titan’s sinking is a critique of human arrogance and blind faith in technology.
Titanic’s sinking became a historical lesson in hubris and technological overconfidence.
The Battle for the Soul of the Youth: The New Theatre of War
Distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, permit me to briefly discuss one other aspect of my literature of war study. This is a form of battle fought not with gunpowder; but waged with algorithms, with advertising, and with the irresistible promise that fortune may be acquired without labour, celebrity without character, and wealth without production.
Vice Chancellor ma, among the most consequential conflicts of our age is the battle for the soul of the youth-a campaign in which gambling and an inordinate passion for sports increasingly occupy the front lines.
It is necessary for me to immediately distinguish between sport and sports obsession. Sport, in its noblest form, is a celebration of discipline, teamwork, resilience, excellence, and the dignity of human effort. Civilizations have long honoured athletic achievements as an expression of physical and moral cultivation. The enemy, therefore, is not sport. The enemy is the transformation of sport from recreation into obsession, from inspiration into addiction, from healthy competition into an all-consuming spectacle that colonizes the imagination and displaces higher pursuits.
War fiction teaches us that every invasion begins with the capture of strategic territory. In this conflict, the first territory to be occupied is attention. The modern youth is relentlessly courted by a barrage of fixtures, transfer rumours, statistics, fantasy leagues, betting odds, livestreams, and endless commentary. Hours once devoted to study, invention, reflection, civic engagement, and artistic creation are gradually surrendered to an uninterrupted cycle of anticipation, consumption, and emotional investment in contests over which the spectator exercises no control.
Closely allied to this occupation is the advance of gambling. If sport is the battlefield, gambling is often the merchant who follows the army.
War fiction repeatedly warns us that the gravest dangers are not always visible. The most successful campaigns are those in which the conquered fail to recognize that they have been conquered. Likewise, the greatest casualty of compulsive gambling and excessive sports fixation is often invisible. It is the gradual erosion of discipline, patience, intellectual curiosity, and purposeful ambition. A generation may remain physically free while becoming psychologically occupied by habits that consume time, resources, and emotional energy.
The literature of war reminds us that every prolonged conflict demands sacrifice. The question before us is therefore unavoidable: what is being sacrificed on the altar of endless sporting consumption and speculative gambling? Is it academic excellence? Is it entrepreneurial imagination? Is it scientific innovation? Is it civic responsibility? Is it the quiet discipline through which nations cultivate leaders, scholars, inventors, and statesmen? These are questions that deserve our sustained attention.
If this inaugural lecture has any summons, it is this: let us reclaim the imagination of our youth from every force that diminishes their capacity to think deeply, labour honestly, and aspire nobly. For the destiny of a nation is ultimately determined not by the games its young people watch, nor by the bets they place, but by the character they build, the knowledge they acquire, the books they read, the ideas they cultivate, and the enduring works they create. In every age, the decisive battle is the one fought for the human soul, and literature remains one of humanity's most enduring weapons in that noble campaign.
Across centuries, writers have raised their voices against this seductive snare. Charles Dickens, in The Old Curiosity Shop (1841), portrays how reckless gambling tears families apart and reduces life to bankruptcy-moral as well as material. With prophetic urgency, Zola’s Money (L’Argent, 1891) exposes the fever of speculation, showing how greed corrodes not only individual lives but entire societies.
Here, literature offers an ancient warning. Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Gambler is perhaps the greatest fictional anatomy of gambling addiction. Dostoevsky reveals that gambling is not fundamentally about money; it is about psychological captivity. The gambler becomes intoxicated by uncertainty itself, surrendering reason to hope and hope to obsession. The novel reveals how gambling enslaves the will, corrodes human dignity, and traps even the most brilliant minds in cycles of obsession. Every wager promises liberation while tightening the chains of dependence. The novel reminds us that the most devastating losses are not monetary but moral and existential. Ben Mezrich’s Bringing Down the House (2002)=strips away the glamour of casinos and card tables, and teaches us that the industry thrives on deception and human weakness.
Whoever commands attention commands imagination; whoever commands imagination shapes destiny. The battle for attention is therefore a battle for the future. This battlefield is cultural rather than geographical; the casualties are measured not in bodies but in wasted potential.
My Contributions to Literary Studies: The Theory of the Classics of War Fiction
Perhaps my most distinctive contribution to literary studies lies in my development of what I describe as a “Theory of the classics of War Fiction.” This theoretical framework emerged from my conviction that classical fictional representations of wars, despite originating from different historical and cultural contexts, share enduring literary, philosophical, and humanistic concerns that warrant comparative study.
My scholarship therefore moves beyond the conventional practice of studying war literature within isolated national traditions and instead establishes defining characteristics that transcend their immediate historical settings.
This comparative framework challenges the tendency to privilege Western literary traditions as the exclusive source of literary theory. By bringing American and Nigerian civil war narratives into equal conversation, I demonstrate that African literary texts are not simply subjects of theoretical inquiry but are themselves capable of generating concepts, models, and theoretical paradigms that enrich global literary scholarship.
In this respect, my work contributes to the ongoing decolonization of comparative literature by affirming the intellectual authority of African literary traditions in the production of literary knowledge. The broader significance of this scholarship lies in its demonstration that literature offers one of humanity's most profound means of understanding civil conflict.
I regard this theoretical contribution as an invitation for future scholars to extend comparative studies of civil war fiction beyond the American and Nigerian traditions to other literary cultures that have grappled with internal conflict. In doing so, the theory of the classics of civil war fiction seeks to establish a broader framework through which literature may continue to illuminate both the particular histories of nations and the shared experiences of humanity.
Conclusion: narratives as technologies of vision
As I draw this lecture to a close, I return to the central proposition that has guided my reflections: that narrative is a cartographer as it remains one of humanity's greatest technologies of vision. Before maps existed on paper, stories taught people where they had come from, where they belonged, and where they might yet go. Even in our digitally connected world, fiction continues to chart emotional, ethical, and spiritual geographies that no satellite can capture.
If the cartographer measures landscapes, the novelist measures consciousness. If geography charts territories, fiction charts possibilities. And if universities are entrusted with enlarging the frontiers of knowledge, then literature must remain one of the disciplines through which humanity continually enlarges its vision of itself.
It is my hope that this lecture contributes, however modestly, to that enduring enterprise-affirming that stories do not merely reflect the world; they help create the moral and imaginative maps by which individuals, communities, and nations find their way.
Vice Chancellor, Ladies and gentlemen, as we sail on in this great voyage of humanity, let us keep our maps open, our lenses polished, and our eyes fixed on the twin tasks of understanding our present and imagining our future. For it is in literature that we find both the route and the vision. The telescope does not replace the eye, but it extends it. In literature, we do not merely observe the world-we begin to understand it.
Recommendations
To Academia and Universities
Reposition literature in educational curriculum as a vital tool for moral, civic and intellectual navigation. Let it play its natural role in engendering cultural awareness and to strengthen empathy, foresight, ethical reasoning, cultural intelligence, and imaginative problem-solving-qualities indispensable to responsible leadership and nation-building.
Deepen the integration of literature with other disciplines such as Science, Technology, Psychology and Medicine so that literary insights can help propose humane solutions to societal challenges. Fiction offers conceptual bridges across these domains, enriching both scholarship and public discourse.
To Educators
Educators at all levels should encourage reading, not as an examination requirement, but as a lifelong habit of intellectual and moral formation. A society that ceases to read fiction gradually loses the capacity to imagine lives beyond its own experience. Where imagination diminishes, intolerance often flourishes.
To teachers of English
It is in literature that we encounter a higher level of creative use of language, higher than we ever can get from mere classroom exposure or social interaction. Teaching of English without literary back-up is hollow and unproductive. It is like pushing a car to start without an engine. It will move, but it won’t drive.
For Policy Makers and National Development Planners:
Recognize the role of literature in shaping national consciousness and social cohesion—fund and support literary projects, translations, and archives to cultivate an informed and empathetic citizenry.
Poetic epilogue…
Literature is our compass… and our telescope.
It is the map beneath our hands… and the stars above our eyes.
It remembers the road we have travelled…
It warns of the road we must avoid…
And it dares us to dream of roads not yet built.
With literature, we voyage with purpose.
Without it… we drift.
A Word of Gratitude
I would not be here without those combatants who fought the battles of my own life along with me. To my mentors who taught me how to read and re-read, my colleagues, my students, my family-I owe a debt of gratitude. It was my teacher and mentor, Professor A. E. Eruvbetine, who, on the 14th of June 1988, whisked me off from the University of Lagos and planted me here in LASU. I remain ever grateful to him.
Contributions to the university
My contributions to the development of Lagos State University extended beyond teaching, research, committee service, and the supervision of doctoral students into the demanding but rewarding arena of academic administration. Over the years, I have been privileged to serve the University in some leadership capacities, each presenting a distinct opportunity to contribute to institutional growth, academic excellence, and the advancement of our collective mission.
I served three times as Head of the Department of English-a responsibility that afforded me repeated opportunities to provide academic leadership, strengthen departmental administration, mentor colleagues, and contribute to the intellectual development of both staff and students. To be entrusted with this responsibility on three separate occasions was, for me, both an honour and a solemn reminder that leadership is sustained not merely by the authority of office but by the confidence of colleagues, the quality of service, and the enduring value of one's contributions.
I also served as Sub-Dean of Faculty of Arts and in that capacity, I participated in the coordination of faculty affairs and the pursuit of academic and administrative objectives across the various departments. This experience broadened my understanding of university governance and deepened my appreciation of the collaborative effort required to sustain a vibrant academic community.
I subsequently served as Assistant Director of the School of Part-Time Studies and later as acting Director of the Lagos State University External System (LASUES). where I contributed to the administration of an important dimension of the University's educational mandate. This assignment reinforced my conviction that the university must remain responsive to the educational aspirations of diverse categories of learners and committed to widening access to quality higher education.
Looking back upon these successive appointments, I regard them not simply as positions held or titles acquired, but as chapters in a continuing journey of service to LASU. Each office enlarged my experience, tested my capacity, strengthened my understanding of institutional leadership, and reaffirmed my belief that the university is built not by individuals acting alone, but by people working together in pursuit of a shared vision.
To my colleagues in the Department of English
I convey my heart-felt appreciation to my dear colleagues in the Department of English. It is their collaboration and their intellectual community that have shaped my academic life. Their shared commitment to excellence in teaching, research, and service have created a thriving academic neighbourhood in which I have been privileged to grow. Their thoughtful conversations, shared laughter, and enduring support have enriched my academic journey in countless ways.
This inaugural, and its being my valediction also, is partly dedicated to our intellectual companionship and the generous spirit of our common pursuit of knowledge. Ours is a community where dialogue flourishes, critique is kind, and mentorship is mutual.
In particular, I joyfully celebrate the inimitable, irrepressible and eloquent “Babbler” and world-class Discourse Analyst, Professor Adeleke Adelekan FAKOYA. Professor Omolola Abiodun LADELE and Professor Olusegun Ojo OLORUNLEKE have been steady pillars of collegial and intellectual support for me. It is an honor to grow and teach alongside you and I must thank you for walking this journey with me.
Professor Gabriel OSOBA, an outstanding professor of Literary Stylistics, I want to say “thank you.” Now to my other colleagues and fellow pilgrims in scholarship, Professor Pius AKHIMIEN, Professor Ayotunde AYODELE, Professor Agnes Abidemi ATOLAGBE. Professor Oluwaseun Rachel BELLO, Professor Henry Jedediah HUNJO, Professor Abolaji Samuel MUSTAPHA, Professor Rosarri Chinedu MBISIKE. Professor Olawunmi Omolara ONI-BURAIMOH, Professor Abiodun ADENIJI, Dr. Joseph Olufemi ODEYEMI, Dr. Sylvester Olajire IDOWU, Dr. Ganiyu Abisoye BAMGBOSE, Dr. Taofeek OLATUBOSUN, Dr. Owoicho ODIGHI, Mr. Ezekiel AJOSE, Mr. Dele ADEJOBI, and Mr. Mohammed LAWAL - all fellow members of the Department of English, I thank you for being great motivators and excellent academic players. I also want to thank our administrative officers in the Department: and Mr. Isaac OROGE and Mrs. Victoria IDOWU
To my other indispensable friends
I count it a rare privilege to acknowledge and celebrate my amiable friend, brother, and gentleman of distinction, Professor Abolade ADENIJI, World-class Professor of Economic History and International Relations. In the same spirit, I warmly honour Professor S. G. ODEWUNMI, Professor Sola FOSUDO, Professor Onaolapo Kayode TAIWO, the late Professor Rotimi Harrison ADENIYI, Professor Tayo ODUMOSU, Professor Ayo OMOTAYO, Professor Segun ADEFUYE, Professor Femi ADEDINA, Professor A.O.K NOAH, Professor Tunji AZEEZ, Distinguished Professor Rafiu Laolu OKUNEYE, Professor Abayomi ARIGBABU, (former Vice Chancellor TASUED & current Hon. Commissioner for Education, Ogun State) and Dr. Omoteso OLUWA. Each of these gentlemen-scholars has been a steady compass and a guiding telescope on my scholarly voyage-friends whose fellowship maps out direction and expands horizons. To this constellation of companions, I borrow the immortal words: “As flies to wanton boys…”—yet, for us, let the exuberant joy of fellowship continue as a radiant star that illuminates the path ahead.
To my great cousin and academic leader, Professor Victor Segun AWONUSI (Professor of English, former Ogun State Commissioner for Education, and former Vice Chancellor, Tai Solarin University of Education), I say thank you, sir. Your scholarship and example have been both compass and telescope on my journey—pointing the way with clarity and opening wider horizons of vision.
I like to pay a special tribute to Professor (Mrs.) Foluso OKEBUKOLA (Professor of Reading and English Language Education), who became a maternal presence to me outside of academics. I truly appreciate her encouragement and matronly interest in my wellbeing and that of my family.
In the same vein, I sincerely appreciate my Big Daddy, Chief (Dr.) Hammed Ayodele Ibraheem, Founder and Chancellor of Eko University of Medicine and Health Sciences. Thank you, Sir, for nearly 40 years of remarkable impact, inspiring leadership, unwavering support, and selfless service. Your legacy of excellence and commitment to shaping lives continues to inspire generations. I am deeply grateful for your guidance, generosity, and the countless opportunities you have created. May God continue to strengthen you, bless you with good health, and reward your enduring contributions to humanity.
To my colleagues at Covenant University and Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro
I extend my heartfelt thanks to my friend, brother, pastor, and academic colleague, Dr. Promise Oluwasegun OMIDIORA of the Department of Languages and General Studies, Covenant University. I am also grateful to Dr. Lilly Chimuanyan, Dr. Edith Bisola Awogu-Maduagwu and Dr. Edwin Onwuka and to all of you at Covenant University, I remain sincerely appreciative.
I appreciate my dearly beloved colleagues, Dr. (Mrs.) Sunmbo OMOTAYO, Dr. Victor IDAKWO, both of the Federal University of Science and Technology, Ilaro.
And to Dr. (Mrs.) Obiageli Belinda ULASIKA, thank you for being such an exceptional student and valued colleague. Your dedication, brilliance and commitment have been truly inspiring.
To my other special friends and colleagues
Two of my friends and colleagues from the University of Lagos deserve special mention in my academic journey: Professor Tunde ODUWOBI, Professor Justin Godwin Nkem ONYEKPE (Odoziuwa) (FHSN). We were roommates, and together we spent those formative postgraduate years, keeping one another awake through countless nights of drafting and reviewing our dissertations. I thank God that even when the road grew difficult, we did not fall away. Today, I am grateful to see us all flourishing in our respective academic callings. I am equally grateful to my friends and colleagues: Professor Patrick OLOKO of the Department of English, University of Lagos and Otunba Kunle AYENI and Professor (Mrs.) Foluke AYENI of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos.
From my undergraduate days at the University of Port Harcourt, Professor Mitchell Ibitamuno AMINIGO was my closest companion. Our bond has remained strong, in fellowship and communion, to this very day.
From my secondary school in the city of Kano, three of my friends and classmates are here, Pastor Titus Oguntimilehin. Titus, I found my early bearing in Christ through my association with you. You were my Andrew in those early years of growing up, bringing my Peter to the Messiah. Mrs. Adeyinka ADEWUNMI and Mrs. Victoria AKIPELU, thank you for coming.
To two distinguished torchbearer scholars and the entire Faculty of Arts
Let me specially salute two distinguished scholars and eminent personalities in our Faculty of Arts, whose presence here today adds uncommon lustre to this occasion:—Professor (Bishop) Dapo Asaju and Professor (Chief Imam) Amidu Sanni.
Professor Dapo Asaju represents a remarkable confluence of scholarship, faith, leadership, and service, while Professor Amidu Sanni embodies the equally admirable harmony of intellectual excellence, religious commitment, wisdom, and cultural understanding. In their different but complementary ways, they have demonstrated that the life of the scholar transcends the classroom: it is a life of knowledge, character, service, and impact.
They are, in their different traditions, two lamps burning in the same temple of knowledge—reminding us that, although our paths may be different, the pursuit of truth ultimately leads us toward the same horizon.
Your presence here today is more than a courtesy; it is a benediction upon this lecture and a tribute to the enduring fellowship of the academy.
Distinguished Professors, I salute you. May your lamps continue to burn brightly, illuminating generations yet unborn. Through you, sirs, I wish to express my gratitude to the entire members of the great Faculty of Arts.
WINNERS SATELLITE FELLOWSHIP (WSF), AREAS 51 and 53
I wish to express my profound appreciation to my beloved Pastors and brethren of Winners' Chapel International, particularly the congregations in Area 51 (OPIC) and Area 53 (Ijuri). Your love and partnership in the work of the Kingdom have enriched my Christian journey and have contributed significantly to my personal and professional development.
FRIENDS & PASTORS
I pay a great tribute to all pastors and senior friends from outside of the Lagos State University.
Family
With gratitude to God, I gladly acknowledge the profound and indispensable contributions of my biological brothers and sister: Pastor Philip Olalekan OGUNPITAN, Pastor Solomon Omotayo OGUNPITAN, and Pastor (Mrs.) Bisola OYEWOLE (nee OGUNPITAN).
To my nephews, nieces and cousins: Mr. Olumide Aderemi OGUNPITAN, Otunba Olusegun OGUNPITAN, Mr. Abayomi Adebambo OGUNPITAN, Mr. Oluwasesan Adebayo OGUNPITAN, Mr. Adedayo OGUNPITAN, Adetoun OGUNPITAN, Titilayo OGUNPITAN, Adedamola and Miss Aderonke OGUNPITAN. I gladly acknowledge all my cousins represented by Otunba Olugbenga OGUNTAMU, Omoba Adesanya OGUNTAMU and Dr. Leke OGUNTAMU.
A grateful Pilgrim: My forty-year sojourn in LASU
Standing here today, I am filled with a profound sense of gratitude as I reflect on my forty-year sojourn in the Lagos State University. This institution has been more than a workplace. It has been my intellectual home, the soil in which my academic roots have grown deep, and the platform upon which my ideas have found a voice. From the early days of youthful ambition to the present moment of seasoned reflection, Lagos State University has been the constant in my professional pilgrimage. Within its walls, I have found knowledge, in its libraries and lecture halls, inspiration, and in the offices, enduring camaraderie among colleagues. I have taught generations of students, and in return, they have taught me resilience, curiosity, patience and hope. The university gave me space to question, to write, to teach, to serve, and to belong. I am especially grateful to the leadership-past and present-whose vision sustained this institution, and to the vibrant academic community that made every milestone meaningful. To the Lagos State University, I offer not just my thanks, but my unwavering loyalty, my pride; and this inaugural lecture, stands as both a personal achievement and a tribute to a university that has given me everything. Here, at the Lagos State University, our great task has been, not only to produce knowledge but to nurture wisdom-to train minds not only to look, but to see. My dear Vice Chancellor, thank you for the journey so far.
To my Pastor and Spiritual Coach
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, permit me to specially acknowledge and express my profound gratitude to my highly esteemed father in the Lord, Bishop David Oyedepo, the Presiding Bishop of Living Faith Church Worldwide, popularly known as Winners’ Chapel, who has graciously sent me a commemorative plaque in recognition of my service in the ministry and in honour of my inaugural lecture and my new appointment.
This thoughtful gesture is deeply humbling and profoundly appreciated. It represents not only a cherished recognition of my service but also a treasured connection between my academic journey and my spiritual commitment.
I thank my father Bishop Oyedepo and my Beloved Resident Pastor, Pastor David Oyedepo Jr. most sincerely for this honour, generosity and gracious remembrance. May his impact on my life endure to the next generation as he remains a blessing to humanity and a beacon of faith and excellence.
Thank you, sir, for this memorable honour.
To my darling wife
I acknowledge with utmost pleasure, the unwavering support of my wife, lover, partner, confidante, and the multivitamins of my mental and physical vivacity. If you see me bouncing and abounding with vim, vitality, and vigour, I have someone giving me daily doses, providing the emotional, spiritual, and psychological nourishment that has kept me energized. This lecture-and much of what I have achieved so far in this pilgrimage, is as much hers as it is mine. I express my deepest gratitude to her because she has partnered and shared this journey with me to the point of triumph. Deaconess Mary Olubunmi OGUNPITAN, this is your day as much as it is mine. Thank you. Your coming into my life has been such a tremendous blessing.
And to my children
At home, I am immersed in the right mixture of entertaining stories and serious study. Thank you for providing the setting, the plot, the dramatis personae, and the entertaining stand-up comic relief for my continuous engagement. This lecture, therefore, like much of my work, carries their imprint in more ways than I can fully articulate. Samuel Shiloh, Deborah Oluwafisayomi, Esther MofeJesu and Rebecca MoniJesu. Thank you and God bless you.
To all parents
And to all parents here, I salute you for your tireless domestic war and peace initiatives. You are battlefield generals in miniature civil wars, fought bravely in the kitchens, living rooms, and homework battlefields. It is a poignant reminder that the seeds of conflict-whether in nations or nurseries, are sown in the soil of human nature. In truth, all parents are professors of civil war; not of “fiction,” but “friction”. Their classrooms are kitchens and bedrooms, their students are children, and their lectures are daily, unending, and rarely attended without protest. So, to all you fellow professors of domestic civil war study, I say thank you for maintaining eternal peace on the home front and giving society the calm and balance, it so desperately needs.
To my parents
To my parents-Chief Elijah Adetimehin OGUNPITAN (the Baba Ijo of St. John’s Ang. Church, Agogo) and Mrs. Edlinah Ibijoke OGUNPITAN-thank you for your quiet and sure guidance which have anchored my life till this moment. I am equally grateful to my father-in-law, the late Chief Julius Olanrewaju ADEGBOLA for his unquantifiable support in my life’s journey
To my “Moses” and “Joseph”
There remains, above all, one great debt of gratitude-one I can never fully repay, no matter how hard I try. Over the years, it has only grown deeper. It is the debt I owe to the “Moses” who led me out of many personal Egypt-of ignorance, poverty, fear, and limited vision-and to the “Joseph” who went ahead to prepare the path for my journey. Through him, I came to understand that deliverance is often a family project.
To you, therefore, Elder Abraham Adedeji Ogunsanya Ogunpitan, I dedicate this inaugural lecture. You were not merely my elder brother in the biological sense; you were far more-both father and mother in one. You were the valiant helper of my destiny, my personal GPS and telescope. Without you, my journey to this moment might never have been possible. May your memory remain a blessing and your legacy a compass for the rest of my journey.
Let the Voyage return to its harbor
Alo o, alo oo
Let me conclude the personal story I began with because my experience proves that the pen is not only mightier than the sword, it can be far more dangerous. It was a single book review, not a coup, that made General Sani Abacha take notice of me. It seems I had unwittingly fired a literary missile, and the General ducked. I learned that words can rattle thrones, outpace armies, and leave a mark no bullet can erase. It remains a paradox that a few paragraphs of a literary essay can be both disarming and alarming such as to unsettle a dictator and make him treat me like a national security threat.
While they prowled the grounds of LASU in search of me, Heaven had already staged its own satellite rescue mission. I was, in that moment, like Evangelist Philip in the Acts of the Apostles who, after baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch, was whisked away by the Spirit of the Lord and found himself miles away in Azotus. In my case, the Spirit’s geography was far more ambitious: I was plucked from Lagos and set down-a world away from their grasp, at Cornell University, Ithaca, USA, on the far side of the Atlantic, far beyond the reach of my pursuers. I received the Fulbright Fellowship Award which took me to the USA for an academic session. You may recall my earlier comparison to Philip; now the prophecy is fully fulfilled and discharged.
And here, ladies and gentlemen, is the culprit: a slim, harmless-looking pamphlet, written by one of my 200-level students. Yet my review of it, published in The Guardian, sent tremors through the Nigerian Military Government itself.
And so, I learned firsthand that in the battle between the sword and the pen, the pen not only wins,it can make a dictator lose sleep over a fabulous innocuous little novella.
That day I discovered a lesson they don’t teach in political science: if you want to scare a dictator, you don’t need an army, just give a literature professor a pen and a deadline.
Remember, I speak from experience: a single book review can relocate you faster than an international scholarship. I like to echo a quote from the Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, who said: “Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.”
To Maranatha University
It is with profound respect and heartfelt gratitude that I warmly welcome and recognize the visionary Founder, Chancellor and Chairman, Board of Trustees of Maranatha University, Ibeju-Lekki, the Reverend Chukwuemeka Emeka Ngubo, for his presence with us today.
With equal delight, I respectfully acknowledge the Pro-Chancellor and Chair of the Governing Council, Rev Dr. (Mrs.) Grace Ngubo, whose exemplary leadership, wisdom, and dedication continue to strengthen the governance and strategic direction of our beloved University.
May I respectfully request that the distinguished Reverend Chukwuemeka Ngubo and Rev. Dr. (Mrs.) Grace Ngubo rise to be recognized.
Vice Chancellor, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, please, kindly join me in appreciating these remarkable builders of destiny, whose faith, sacrifice, and visionary leadership have made Maranatha University a citadel of learning and Christian character as well as the birth place of PERSONALITIES OF GLOBAL IMPACT.
Chancellor, sir, I wish to express my profound gratitude for your steadfast support, confidence, and encouragement. Your generous spirit and your unwavering commitment to excellence continue to inspire us all. I am deeply honoured by the trust you have reposed in me. I sincerely appreciate your leadership and the opportunity to contribute to the advancement of this great student-centred
institution.
To two former Vice Chancellors
Finally, I consider it both a duty and a privilege to express my profound appreciation to two distinguished former Vice-Chancellors of LASU: Professor Abisogun Olabode LEIGH and Professor Olanrewaju Adigun FAGBOHUN. Their exemplary leadership created an enabling environment in which I was able to flourish, not only as a scholar but also as an academic administrator.
I remain deeply grateful for the confidence they reposed in me, the opportunities they graciously afforded me to serve, and the encouragement they gave me to contribute meaningfully to the advancement of the University. The experiences I gained under their administrations have profoundly shaped my academic journey, broadened my administrative capacity, and prepared me for the responsibilities ahead. I respectfully acknowledge their invaluable contributions to my professional development and I thank them most sincerely.
I pray that the Almighty God will continue to strengthen you and crown your distinguished legacies with abiding peace, fulfillment, and honour.
Transition from Professor at LASU to Vice-Chancellor of Maranatha University Lagos.
And, Vice Chancellor ma, ladies and gentlemen, let me end by drawing your attention to the fact that, today, I am wearing two academic gowns; one visible, the other yet to be revealed.
This one that you can see—the gown proudly bearing the academic identity of a Professor of English at Lagos State University which represents my scholarly journey: the years of teaching, research, supervision, writing, and mentoring. But underneath this gown is another gown—the gown of the Vice-Chancellor of Maranatha University Lagos.
So, in a manner of speaking, I came here today as a professor, but I am leaving as a Vice-Chancellor!
You may therefore say that I am academically overdressed!
But there is a deeper meaning to these two gowns. The gown on top reminds me of where I have come from; the gown underneath reminds me of where I am going. One represents the scholar I have been; the other represents the responsibility I have now been called to bear.
And perhaps there is a lesson here for all of us: in the journey of life, sometimes the future is already underneath the present—you simply have to keep walking until the time comes for it to be revealed.
Today, therefore, I stand between two gowns, two responsibilities, and two chapters—but with one enduring commitment: to scholarship, to service, to humanity, and to the transformative power of education.
Thank you, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, for accompanying me on this intellectual journey. May literature continue to be our GPS, our telescope, our mirror, our lamp, and our compass as we navigate the voyage of life.
Story! Story! Story!
And so, my story continues—not with the closing of a lecture, but with the opening of another chapter.
And now…
And now to the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
Thank you all for listening, and for walking part of this journey with me today.
MY SONG OF PRAISE
Praise, my soul, the King of heaven;
To His feet thy tribute bring.
Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
Who like thee His praise should sing?
Praise Him! Praise Him!
Praise Him! Praise Him!
Praise the everlasting King!
Appendix
When Science Fiction Becomes Science Fact: novels/stories that remarkably anticipated the future
1. Looking Backward — Edward Bellamy, (1888).
Prediction: credit/debit cards and cashless purchasing, shopping centers, home delivery/catalog shopping. In the novel, the citizens receive a card representing their purchasing credit and use it to obtain goods without carrying money. Bellamy imagined people receiving individual “credit cards” that they used to obtain goods without physical cash. Modern credit cards didn't emerge until decades later; the first major general-purpose card, Diners Club, appeared in 1950. It is impressive, not just that “people will use electronic money,” but because Bellamy imagined many years before that, that a card tied to an individual's purchasing account and transaction records.
2. The World Set Free — H.G. Wells, (1914).
Prediction: atomic bombs and nuclear warfare. Wells described atomic weapons powered by atomic energy more than 30 years before Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even more remarkably, physicist Leó Szilárd read the book in 1932, and subsequently developed the idea of a neutron chain reaction that became fundamental to nuclear weapons.
3. From the Earth to the Moon — Jules Verne, (1865).
Prediction: a manned lunar mission launched from Florida. Verne's fictional expedition has some astonishing similarities to Apollo:
three astronauts
launch from Florida
enormous projectile
lunar mission
splashdown recovery
a projectile/capsule designed for lunar travel
weightlessness
international cooperation
approximately the right scale of spacecraft
Verne even chose Florida as the launch location.
Apollo 11 happened 104 years later.
4. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea — Jules Verne, (1870).
Prediction: electrically powered submarines.
Captain Nemo's Nautilus uses electricity for propulsion and sustained underwater travel. The first modern electric submarines appeared decades later.
5. The Machine Stops — E.M. Forster, (1909).
Prediction: Internet-like communication, video calls, remote living and dependence on technology. People communicate through screens, receive lectures remotely, obtain entertainment and information electronically, and increasingly avoid physical interaction. Written more than a century ago, it is astonishingly recognizable after the Zoom/remote-work era.
6. Ralph 124C 41+ — Hugo Gernsback, (1911/1925).
Prediction: television,
solar energy
videophone-like communication
electronic media
radar-like technology
synthetic foods
recorded information
wireless communication
7. Stand on Zanzibar — John Brunner, (1968).
Prediction: an astonishing collection of 21st-century developments, which incudes:
China becoming America's major economic rival
terrorism
school shootings
genetic engineering
satellite television
electric cars
laser printers
changing attitudes toward homosexuality
corporate power
mass media saturation terrorism
recreational drugs
Europe moving toward political/economic union
computers analyzing enormous quantities of information
The novel even contains a character named President Obomi, bearing a close resemblance to the American President Obomi. The “Obomi” reference is especially interesting because it predates Barack Obama’s presidency.
8. The Shockwave Rider — John Brunner, (1975).
Prediction: computer worms, hacking, cyberwarfare, information overload,
electronic payments, cyberwarfare, networked information and digital identity. Brunner actually used “worm” for a self-replicating program moving through a computer network.
9. Neuromancer — William Gibson, (1984).
Prediction: cyberspace, virtual worlds, hackers and immersive global computer networks. Gibson's description of “cyberspace” is astonishingly close to the conceptual Internet/VR environment that followed. The novel imagined a global interconnected digital environment, networked urban life and information-based social systems years before the Web became mainstream.
10. Snow Crash — Neal Stephenson, (1992).
Prediction: the metaverse, avatars, persistent virtual worlds and virtual commerce (cryptocurrency prediction). Stephenson actually coined the term metaverse in the novel. Users enter a persistent three-dimensional virtual environment through head-mounted displays and appear as avatars.
In 1995, Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age predicted AI-driven personalized education and interactive digital books. The “Young Lady's Illustrated Primer” is effectively an interactive educational book that responds to its user and provides personalized instruction. This is remarkably close to modern AI tutoring systems. Again, his Cryptonomicon 1999 anticipated digital currencies, cryptography, anonymous digital transactions and decentralized financial systems. Stephenson was exploring ideas that became much more visible with cryptocurrencies and blockchain decades later.
11. 2001: A Space Odyssey — Arthur C. Clarke, (1968) anticipated:
tablet-like computers
video calls
AI assistants
voice-controlled computing
space stations
commercial space travels
The video-call scene is particularly striking because a character uses a screen to communicate with someone on Earth while traveling in space. Video calling is now routine.
12. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy — Douglas Adams, (1979).
Prediction: a portable electronic encyclopedia containing essentially the world's information accessed through a portable device. It is hard not to see the modern smartphone + voice assistant + cloud computing + Internet + Wikipedia in the concept.
13. Fahrenheit 451 — Ray Bradbury, (1953).
Prediction: wireless earbuds and giant interactive wall screens.
Bradbury's characters wear tiny “seashell” audio devices and interact with enormous television walls.
14. 1984 — George Orwell, (1949).
Prediction: ubiquitous surveillance using cameras and technology for psychological/social information manipulation and technologically assisted authoritarianism. Orwell's telescreen simultaneously broadcasts information and monitors citizens. Modern surveillance.
15. Brave New World — Aldous Huxley, (1932).
Prediction: Huxley imagined a society dominated by:
recreational pharmaceuticals, engineered reproduction, consumerism and instant entertainment, casual sex and psychological conditioning. This is more of a social prediction than a technological one.
16. Player Piano — Kurt Vonnegut, (1952).
Prediction: automation eliminating large numbers of human jobs.
The book predicts a central social problem in which machines will perform work humans once performed. This is remarkably relevant to AI and robotics.
17. The Futurological Congress — Stanisław Lem, (1971).
Prediction: chemically/technologically manipulated perception and an increasingly unreliable distinction between reality and artificial experience. This becomes especially interesting when viewed alongside virtual reality, deepfakes and generative AI.
Select Bibliography
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