By Nehru Odeh

Renowned Nigerian playwright, scholar, novelist and poet, Professor Femi Osofisan, has expressed gratitude to family, friends, colleagues, students, admirers and well-wishers who celebrated his 80th birthday, saying the overwhelming response left him stunned.

Osofisan, who turned 80 on June 16, 2026, described the outpouring of goodwill that accompanied the milestone birthday as far greater than anything he had anticipated.

In a letter of gratitude titled “From Femi Osofisan, a Letter of Gratitude,” the celebrated writer apologised for the delay in acknowledging the contributions of those who made the celebration memorable, explaining that the sheer magnitude of the response had left him temporarily speechless.

“But, please forgive me: it was the unexpected magnitude of that success in fact that has kept me mute. Nothing, I confess, had prepared me for the scale of response,” Osofisan wrote.

He said that although he had expected to have a good time with friends and well-wishers, he never imagined that his birthday would generate such a widespread wave of affection and goodwill.

According to him, the tributes and felicitations came from across the world, including Lagos, London, Bayreuth, Beijing, New York, Nairobi, Berlin, Accra and Ibadan.

He acknowledged the contributions of a wide circle of people, ranging from friends and family members to students, siblings, elders, colleagues, mentors, media practitioners, aides and even brief acquaintances.

Osofisan said they celebrated him through prayers and benedictions, telephone calls, WhatsApp messages, physical presence and generous material and monetary gifts.

Recalling the atmosphere of the celebration, he quoted one of his closest friends who, while watching the festivities, slipped him a note which read: “Femi, this NOT a Birthday party. This is a fiesta. This is a Carnival.”

The experience, he said, left him “stunned into a state of stupor” in the aftermath of the celebration, from which he was only gradually recovering.

“Oh, it has been such an exhilarating experience: the spontaneity and ubiquity of response; the effusive demonstrations of love and appreciation; the visible outpouring of love and respect… and above all, a letter from the President!” he wrote.

Reflecting on the significance of the celebration, the veteran dramatist said he was particularly touched by the recognition despite his not belonging to any political party or coming from any royal house, and his lack of affiliation with any cult or religious establishment. “What more could a man ask for…?’ he wrote.

He said he had instead chosen to live primarily by “the pragmatic dictates of the Intellect and the demands of Compassion.”

Osofisan, one of Nigeria’s most influential literary figures, said the time had now come for him to move beyond the astonishment of the celebration and begin fulfilling his obligation of gratitude to those who honoured him.

He promised to reach out to people individually but noted that, given the large number of people involved, he might inadvertently leave out some names.

“Hence this preliminary, collective letter of appreciation. I THANK YOU ALL,” he concluded.

Born on June 16, 1946, Osofisan is widely regarded as one of Nigeria’s foremost dramatists and literary scholars. His extensive body of work spans drama, fiction, poetry, criticism and journalism, with his writings often engaging questions of power, social justice, history, culture and human dignity.If you want, I can also make it more literary and feature-like, while retaining the structure and restraint of a newspaper report.