‘The Great Delusion’ comes alive today at LABAF 2025
By Editor
TODAY, Saturday, November 15, 2025, The Great Delusion will make a bold step before the lamps and eyes of Lagos. By 5.00pm at Freedom Park, my award-winning play, The Great Delusion, will stand tall where stories gather like elders at the village square.
I have been at the Lagos Book and Art Festival (LABAF) since November 11. The festival began on the 10th and will end on the 16th. Today is when our own masquerade comes out to dance, and as I wait for that moment, I find myself reflecting about the journey these last few days have offered. LABAF has a way of pulling you in before you even realize it.
In these few days, I have sat in halls and heard voices burning with cultural and artistic fire. I joined the writing workshop led by the master storyteller, Mr. Dele Sikuade, author of Orisa, a crime thriller set in Lagos, Nigeria. His teaching moved like fresh palm wine. The room was lit with learners whose ears were wide and whose hearts were fertile. A man who teaches well is like rain in the dry season; everyone sits still and listens to the roof.
What can I say about the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), the organizer of LABAF? CORA, with tactical finesse, shapes the festival into a wide river where one enters to drink, yet soon discovers it can also wash the feet, cleanse the mind, and teach the young how to move their paddles. The cultural and artistic platform stitched music, debate, theatre, memory, literary criticism, film, and fellowship into a single cloth—broad enough to shelter every curious spirit.
The CORA team? Their dedication would make the ant colonies jealous. You see them everywhere… everywhere… moving chairs, shifting stages, guiding guests, whispering instructions, adjusting microphones, appearing before a problem appears. Someone said they are nearly 40 in number, and I laughed; 40 is small for the vast ground they cover. A festival without such volunteers is like a farm without weeds; either it does not exist, or it has not yet begun to live.
At the heart of this storm of activity is the one and only Programme Chair, Mr. Jahman Anikulapo, whose energy defies age and logic. You watch him and you wonder: is this man carrying the festival, or is the festival carrying him? From Kongi’s Harvest Hall to the Green Festival space and then to the arena of the Kayode Aderinokun Poetry Prize, he walks like one whose feet house fire. You would think he came for an audition where breath is the fee.
Then, there is the legendary the Chairman of the CORA Board, Chief Kayode Aderinokun. To watch him is to understand that a true leader does not point the way, but is the very soil from which the path grows.
Reflecting on the age bracket of LABAF’s volunteers, CORA’s core strength, I think, is its unapologetic focus on youth. This philosophy, it seems, is rooted in the understanding that a society that neglects its youth is very well positioned to fail. It is like a farmer who eats the seed yam at dawn, yet expects a harvest by dusk. Similarly, the deity we hide from the children becomes a mannequin in the closet. CORA acts on this wisdom, planting minds with the patience of a forester who knows that a great canopy is not built in a day.
I also met the distinguished culture journalist, Mr. Anote Ajeluorou; the revolutionary poet, AJ Daggar Tolar and the renowned gardener of poetry and President of Poets In Nigeria (PIN), Mr. Eriata Oribhabor. Though we had corresponded through screens before, LABAF gave us the gift of an essential piece: to put a face to a name is like a drum to a dance—it completes the circle.
And then there was the spectacle at the Green Festival space, where the veteran actor Mr. Wale Ojo engaged young school students (secondary & primary) in a session focused on patriotism and cultural pride. He emphasized the importance of understanding Nigerian heritage as a foundation for national identity. Following the session, I had the pleasure of presenting a copy of The Great Delusion to the seasoned filmmaker. The handover felt like passing a baton in the continuous relay of our episteresurrecist storytelling.
I particularly enjoyed Mr. Samuel Osazee’s anchoring of events. His blend of soft humour with relatable mannerisms is admirably magical.
This note is not a full report, just a brief morning reflection before the day begins in earnest. If you can, join us at 5.00pm today at Freedom Park to experience The Great Delusion at LABAF 2025. Come and share in this moment. For stories travel farther when people gather around them.
Contact: episteresurrecism@yahoo.com
