The annual Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange (WSICE) will hold on July 13 and 14, 2016. The event is part of the 82nd birthday anniversary of the Nobel Laureate, Professor Oluwole Akinwande Soyinka, who is the grand motivation behind the project, and after whom it is named.
WSICE is organised yearly under the auspices of the Open Door Series as designed and promoted by Zmirage Multimedia Limited in collaboration with the US-based GlobalNewHaven. As a common feature of the project in the past six years, themes and topics to be addressed by the various segments of the programme are selected to reflect current happenings in Nigeria and around the world.
The theme for this year’s edition is “Corruption: A Battle for the Arts”, which is calibrated for the youth and adult segments of the project. The youth segment will feature an essay writing competition by students, while the adult segment will feature two keynote speeches on the main theme as well as an all-female panel of discussion on “Corruption as it affects Children, Women and our Common Humanity”.
For the youth segment, the theme for the annual essay competition, is “Challenges or Not, I Love my Country”, and the writing competition will feature 82 students tackling the topic – in a reality television-like setting. In addition, 18 past winners of the yearly competition will be congregated to write commemorative essays on same topic.
Wife of the Ogun State governor, Mrs. Olufunso Amosun will have a special mentorship session with the 82 student essayists and 18 past winners, along with 1,000 other children from various schools in and around Ogun State.
Alhaji Teju Kareem, executive producer, WSICE, said: ‘This year’s theme for the youth segment is aimed at awakening the patriot in young Nigerians, even as many in the older generation have become disillusioned due to the recurrent failure of the Nigerian State.”
The 82 student essayists and 18 past winners along with WSICE officials will pay a courtesy visit to Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State and afterwards, proceed to the country home of Professor Wole Soyinka at Ijegba for a unique personal one-on-one experience.

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