HOMO SAPIENS AND THE MIRAGE OF SELF-PLENUM—A REVIEW OF VALEDICTORY LECTURE BY Prof. B.M. IBITOKUN

                 

     The journey of man begins at birth. The birth of man is the starting point to journey of life. So life is a journey, the voyage that the adventurer cannot imagine the destination. To be in the journey and succeed in the mirage of self-plenum, clenching with determination and scrap, man must compete with scuffle to arrive at certain mirage destination, which serve as the starting point for another journey in life. The attempt to one epoch in life, effort to start another one, so Prof. B.M. Ibitokun, the lecturer as well as host of the valedictory lecture is right in his philosophy:

      A superstructure of theory is always transistory, being constantly superseded by fresh theories which make nearer and nearer approaches to the truth without ever reaching it. On the shore of the great ocean of reality, men are perpetually building theoretical castles of sand, which are perpetually being washed away by the rising tide of knowledge. I cannot expect my own speculations to be more lasting than those of my predecessors. The most that the speculative thinker can hope for is to be remembered for a time as one of the long line of runners, growing dimmer and dimmer as they recede in the distance, who have striven to hand on the torch of knowledge with its little circle of light glimmering in the illimitable darkness of the unknown.  
 

    So the lecturer is right. Homo sapiens is enthusiastic, roaming in the plenum of visionary conclave. Human is not satisfied in his daring potentials being endowed by his Lord. In his existentialist speech, Prof. B.M. Ibitokun, the man of glory, teacher, lecturer who retired recently as a senior lecturer in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-ife, delivered the valedictory lecture, Homo sapiens and the Mirage of Self-plenum—showing the vanity of human wishes.

    In his lengthy existential essay, the lecture is all about the human frantic race in the accumulation of materials of life. Man in his relentless effort to catch the needs of the day makes nebula decision in the plenum of his micro braggadocio skull, canvass with mind drafted mirage vision—running helter-skelter to climb all ladders of life. Right from the beginning, Homo sapiens attempts to make all ladders of life below his feet and pioneer the eye-owing historical fact sheet to sale himself to the world. The inflationary ambition of man to acquire creature of the existence, when God create man, makes God intentionally send man out of His natural world, making man to cylindrical egg-like world and strive for the means. So in the lecture, the lecturer asserted this through his quotation that reveals the God’s decree on humanity—this quotation referred to the British metaphysical poet, George Herbert who speaks on behalf of God through his poet.

‘’For if I should’’ said he

Bestow this jewel also on my creature

He would adore my gift instead of me

And rest in Nature, not God of Nature

…

Yet let him keep the rest

But keep them with restlessness

…

If goodness lead him not, yet weariness

May toss him to my breast’

God has realized also, human is covetous dragging himself toward the pit of destruction just to adore nature instead of the God of nature—Homo sapiens is insatiable. In the institute of thinking, Homo sapiens crumbles to be intellectual, designing the intellectual ability to shape the world to the gorgeously heart proving outlooks.

Postulation of Intellectualism and Ciceronian ‘Cultura animi’

     The lecturer revealed that in the human mode of living, the intellect is endowed by God. The human intellectualism is to guide man in every endeavor. The reasoning faculty, that is  the intellect connects man to his God, this to show that it is the God who breathe to the human skull and makes it living, the intellect according to the lecturer, intellect is the metaphor to the mechanical instrument, so there needs to be lubricated it frequently in order not to turn out inhuman. The lecturer articulated that those who care not to grease their intellect, later turn to hoodlums, terrorists as well as savages.

     The modern world and the technological advancement is an undisputable bravura of the intellect according to the lecturer. Intellect is functioning, improving indeed but not all what intellect does can be accounted as the genuine human outstanding for consciousness. It is not what intellect produced that is good. To be certain, the lecturer made references to the plane, flying like the red- tailed tropic bird in the air, even the sky blinding skyscrapers, unlike nature, human constructions will continue to crash and crumble because there is not authenticity to show the world human intellect is perfect, rather the self-derision and self-counterfeit. This is to show that Homo sapient hopes in gloomy sphere in the Mirage of plenum.

    Nothing new in life but Homo sapiens is intelligent indeed, as being revealed in the sub-topic (The word as wench and lingual approximant) in this lecture, life is imitation, we copy each other to achieve new thing. So writing is drawing on knowledge from the chain of another person—the one who serves as the role model, leading to the inspiration. Inspiration comes through reading of the work written by one writer. According to Prof. B.M. Ibitokun in this lecture:

‘No modern writer can claim that he is saying anything new if he says so, nobody will believe him. What makes a writer great is his blend of medium and message, and his artistic bravura: the peculiar and unfamiliar way of saying the familiar thing.’

    Truly, the lecturer is right in his assertion. Being creative is all about developing new ideas in order to make something familiar new to the people. This means if life is static, no changes in the familiar object around man, the eyes will be tired of gazing and ears retired from hearing then the word will not move with the world.

    In a nutshell, the lecture is to show the human weariness in accumulation of worldly affairs in the particular area where he/she belongs. Man in his self-plenum, weary in the mirage ahead him; never know the ephemera of life and all other things connected to it. Homo sapiens is always eager to take another ladder of life even if where many people run after him just to attain his position—man is myopic in his journey (Homo sapiens and the mirage of self-plenum).

    The lecture delivered Prof. B.M. Ibitokun , HOMO SAPIENS AND THE MIRAGE OF SELF-PLENUM is written in a good English, high coerced with foreign language, like French, Latin even Yoruba inclusive-just like when he made reference to the Yoruba proverb—‘A kii sun, ka koori s’ibikan naa/ people who sleep together cannot put their heads in the same direction.’

     However, the diction of the lecture is highly sophisticated, uneasy to decode the meaning at a glance-one has to check dictionary to learn those strange words used by the lecturer. Though the lecture is interesting, oracular, to talk about aesthetic, to crown this, the lecture should be given free just to as momentum to the young learner like me, so that the number of those have access to the lecture will increase apart the one heard in the hall.