Novelist, playwright, and biographer of Nigeria, Bankole Omotoso, will be 70 years old on April 21, 2013. His arrival at this significant landmark raises the flag for the generation of writers that emerged after the Achebe-Soyinka-J. P. Clark generation.

“The event offers us an opportunity to draw attention to and appreciate his many-sided commitment to the literary arts as well as celebrate those with whom his path has crossed”, remarks the poet Odia Ofeimum, in an emailed statement.

The celebrations will take off as a Special Reading, Kole Omotoso In Person at Jazzhole, on Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, in Lagos on April 17, 2013 at 4.30 pm.

A Kole Omotoso Exhibition titled ;Akure to Jo’burg will be on display from 12 noon on 19th April to 21st April, 2013. The exhibition will be followed with a reception to be held  at the Cultural Centre, Akure on the exhibition’s opening date.

A special birthday lecture also titled,  Radicals, Literature and Nigeria: Just Before 1914, will  be delivered by Professor G.G. Darah of Delta State University, Abraka, and will be chaired by Professor Akinwumi Isola, at the Cultural Centre, Akure on 20th April, 2013 at 4.30pm.

The lecture will be immediately followed by Kole Omotoso’s South African play, Yes  and ‘Know’ To The Freedom Chatter, directed by Felix Okolo and produced by Hornbill House.

Omotoso was the founding General Secretary and a former President of the Association of Nigerian Authors. According to the organisers, “Quintessentially, there is a need to view Kole Omotoso’s achievements as a creative writer also in the context of his role as a pioneering activist in literary journalism.

His literary editorship of Afriscope in the seventies, his Writer’s Diary in West Africa magazine, his travelogues in National Concord, and his  Uncle Very Very series in the now defunct Daily Sketch, bear witness to his durable performances.

Kole Omotoso’s  special creativity in these areas remain  benchmark performances to which must now be added his continuing conversations with Nigeria  – in the columns he has maintained in the pages of The News magazine and Vanguard newspapers.