THEORIZING THE NIGERIAN STAGE: STEPHEN INEGBE@60

Abstract

I consider it a big privilege to be saddled with the responsibility of reviewing the book, Theorising the Nigerian Stage: Stephen Inegbe at 60. This is because both the subject of the book and the book itself have direct bearing on my career and scholarship in a number of ways. This also marks a momentous coming of age for both Prof Stephen Inegbe who is being celebrated in the publication and myself who stand here as one of the children of “his brain” the product of his academic “endeavour” “and the materialisation” of his “inventive genius” to borrow directly from James Ene Henshaw's This is Our Chance (University of London Press, 1956; JEHF/JAP, London, 2013, Pg 6). To therefore be the one to review his celebratory publication at 60 puts him at a high pedestal of good fortune of not only being alive to the age of 60 but also having the uncommon pleasure of having his academic children surround his table (according to the Bible in Psalms 128:3) at this monumental stage of his life. Be that as it may, I want to further thank my colleagues in the Friends of Stephen Inegbe group and the Editors for finding me suitable to play this role among the avalanche of equally cerebral and highly talented throngs of colleagues, friends and ex-students of the celebrator. I accept this task therefore in humility and pray that we all live to surpass the age and accomplishments of our teacher and today's celebrator