A farrago of activities featured in the weeklong celebration galore that mark the 85th birthday of one of the world’s leading lights of literature, Professor Wole Soyinka. Of the various events, none was as outstanding for its novelty and class as the soiree of Monday, July 15, a wine auction hosted by the Nero couple and Vivian Asibelua of Winestitute. First of its kind in Nigeria, the wine auction also doubled as a fundraiser for the Wole Soyinka Foundation.

Unveiled at the occasion were 200 custom-made bottles of wine, serially numbered, each bearing Soyinka’s signature signed on it, plus a poem written by the Noble Laureate on the neck of each bottle, thereby making the set of bottles a premium wine collector’s items.

Prof Soyinka, during his speech, which was received with a roar of applause, conceded: “Since my birthday came along, I have always been feeling ungracious, that other people celebrate my birthday, more than I do. For me, it’s a pain! Except this one. I’ve been enjoying this one, because of this event”.

Kongi, as Soyinka is fondly addressed by his contemporaries, spoke about the idea of celebration, and celebrating by drinking wine and equally creating wealth, and sharing the joyous moments with family and friends. His speech echoed the saying of Louis Pasteur that “a bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.”

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Wine auctioning dated back to the 17th century, but for the record, Winestitute Nigeria and Wole Soyinka Foundation remain the first to auction premium wines in Nigeria.

The auction went on like clockwork, witnessing several POS transactions in minutes and other anonymous biddings that went under the gong. All proceeds went to the Wole Soyinka Foundation.

Guests at the event included top government functionaries and mandarins, business executives and academics. The purple roll call included Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, Professor Duro Oni, JP Clark and his wife, Ebun Clark, former Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, CEO, Terra Kulture, Bolanle Austen-Peters, Erelu Dosumu, co-founder of Sahara Group, Tonye Cole, and founder of Fight Against Desert Encroachment, Dr. Newton Jibunoh, amongst others.

In a week that recorded a slew of birthday parties for the literary giant, the wine auction was a fresh of breath.