The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Soyinka

  • Soyinka faults Buhari’s ‘national interest’ comment

    Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has criticised President Muhammadu Buhari for saying that rule of law can be suspended for the sake of national security or interest.

    Soyinka claimed that Buhari was preparing an alibi for disregarding judicial decisions.

    The President made the comment last Sunday at the opening of the 58th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Abuja, in reliance on a Supreme Court judgment.

    He said: “Rule of law must be subject to the supremacy of the nation’s security and national interest.

    “Our apex court has had cause to adopt a position on this issue in this regard and it is now a matter of judicial recognition that; where national security and public interest are threatened or there is a likelihood of their being threatened, the individual rights of those allegedly responsible must take second place, in favour of the greater good of society.”

    Soyinka also, in a statement titled Buhari’s pernicious doctrine’ faulted the President’s view.

    “Here we go again! At his first coming, it was ‘I intend to tamper with Freedom of the Press’ and Buhari did proceed to suit action to the words, sending two journalists Irabor and Thompson to prison as a reward for their professional integrity”.

    “Now, a vague, vaporous, but commodious concept dubbed ‘national interest’ is being trotted out as alibi for flouting the decisions of the Nigerian judiciary.”
    Soyinka wondered if President Buhari’s incarceration by the former President Ibrahim Babangida’s regime was also in the ”national interest”.

    He further thanked the President for notifying Nigerians of his intentions in advance.

    “The timing is perfect, and we have cause to be thankful for the advance warning, since not all rulers actually make a declaration of intent, but simply proceed to degrade the authority of the law as part of the routine business of governance. We have been there before.

    The playright challenged the the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to give a “robust response”.
    He said: “It should be of mere interest, not despondency, that this latest proclamation of dictatorial recidivism has also been made before an assembly of officers of the law, the Nigerian Bar Association. We expect a robust response from the NBA as part of its conclusions.

    According to Soyinka, “There is no short cut to democracy.

    “The history of law, even where uncodified, is as old as humanity. Numerous rulers have tried again and again to annul that institution. Sometimes, they appear to succeed, but in the end, they pay heavy forfeit. So does society.

    “The Rule of Law, however, outlasts all subverters, however seemingly powerful. If the consequences for society in defence of the Rule of Law were not so costly, any new attempt would be merely banal and boring, hardly deserving of attention. We know, historically, where it will all end.”

  • Ibadan Playhouse to stage Soyinka’s ‘The Trials of Brother Jero’

    THEATRE company, Ibadan Playhouse has set out plans to stage Wole Soyinka’s ‘Trials Of Brother Jero’ on Sunday, August 26, 2018.

    Speaking to The Nation, Ropo Ewenla, of Ibadan Playhouse said that the play will be staged at the Little Theatre of Lagos Country Club, Ikeja, Lagos.

    According to him, Lagos-based theatre group, Crown Troupe of Africa will interpret the play.

    As a way of bringing back the theatre culture, Lagos Country Club in recent times have played host to theatre performances.

  • Leave Obasanjo alone, Yoruba group tells Soyinka

    The Yoruba Consultative Forum (YCF) has condemned what it called a campaign of undisguised calumny by Nobel Laurette Professor Wole Soyinka against former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    In a statement yesterday in Lagos by its President, Professor Tejumade Akintoye Rhodes, YCF said: “Prof Wole Soyinka has definitely crossed the bar of decency and civilised literary grace.

    “At a time when everyone is nudging Obasanjo forward as the courageous rallying point against the present dislocations in our polity, Soyinka is salivating in some primitive laceration of the old soldier, revelling in poisonous vendetta and egregious abuse against Obasanjo.

    “In Soyinka’s warped cosmology, he insists that Obasanjo is not the fit and proper person to lead the new movement against the warped national polity. This is malicious, undignifying, spurious, a drooling mechanical twaddle bound for literary garbage.

    “Of course, Obasanjo, like all of us, is not perfect. But he is a courageous man, a superlative patriot who contends with any errant power with thorough sincerity, with masterful resolve to rectify the observable wrongs.

    “Soyinka has now eroded his once Sterling Heights of great crusader and crashed his status to a Lilliputian pamphleteer, angry at the world and pouring venom everywhere without tactical purity.”

    The group said it resolved to engage Soyinka “with balanced intellectual vigour wherever he erupts again in his crude vitriol against Obasanjo”.

    It added: “Enough is enough.”

     

  • Soyinka: Obasanjo knelt down for Atiku in 2003

    •Ex-President ‘sabotaged Bola Ige’

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo knelt down for then Vice President Atiku Abubakar in his desperate bid to secure the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2003 poll, according to Professor Wole Soyinka.

    The revelation came yesterday as the Nobel laureate gave a rare insight into the high-stake lobbying and negotiations that preceded the PDP’s presidential primaries in which Atiku was highly favoured to win at the expense of his then boss Obasanjo.

    Besides, Soyinka spoke on how genuine efforts by Chief Bola Ige to reposition the energy sector as Power Minister between 1999 and 2000 were sabotaged by Obasanjo.

    Soyinka was replying a question at a special reading session to mark the presentation of his latest book, “Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?: Gani’s Unfinished Business”,  at the Freedom Park, Lagos.

    Speaking at the event, Mr. Louis Odion, one-time Edo State Information Commissioner and The Nation columnist, asked the literary giant whether he believed a sensational claim last year by Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose of witnessing Obasanjo going down on his knees in Tripoli before the late President Muamar Ghaddafi in his desperate bid to secure the Libyan strongman’s  support for an extension of his chairmanship of the African Union (AU), since the former Nigerian President has neither denied nor confirmed the account.

    Fayose’s account was published by an Abuja-based monthly magazine, The Interview.

    Ghaddafi was younger than Obasanjo. Libya is smaller in size and population compared to Nigeria.

    Responding, Soyinka said he had no cause to doubt Fayose, given his knowledge of how Obasanjo did the “unthinkable” when his aspiration for a second term in office was similarly threatened in 2003.

    Said he: “Before the PDP primaries in January 2003, Obasanjo got everyone he knew could reach me on the surface on the earth including Yemi Ogunbiyi and my son, to get me to help him intercede when it was clear that (Abubakar) Atiku was in a position to take his job. He knew Atiku had a lot of regard for me and calls me ‘Uncle’.”

    In the now famous BBC interview few days to PDP’s 2003 primaries, Atiku had declared that he was under tremendous pressure from his supporters to contest the ticket against Obasanjo but was yet to make up his mind in what triggered panic in Obasanjo’s camp.

    “The pressure was intense,” the literary giant recounted. “Of course, I could not have knelt before Atiku not to embark on a course of action that would lead to his boss’ disgrace. But I can confirm to you that Obasanjo as President knelt down before Atiku so that he would not lose his job.

    “But I warned Atiku that for making Obasanjo to kneel down for you, be sure you would have to pay heavily for that. I guess my warning came to pass if you remember Atiku’s dramatic change of fortune once Obasanjo was sworn in for a second term of office.”

    As expected, yesterday’s book reading turned out a day of reminiscences of many bizarre dramas and unsavory episodes that characterised Obasanjo’s reign as two-term president betweeen 1999 and 2007. The panel of disscussants included frontline rights activist-lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) and Mr. Sam Omatseye, author and Chairman of “The Nation” Editorial Board, and was moderated by Mr. Kunle Ajibade, award-winning author and Executive Director of “TheNews/Tempo”.

    The roll-call at the event included literary colossus Prof. J. P. Clark, Colonel Tony Nyiam (retd) and Mr. Jahman Anikulapo.

    Dispelling the notion that the long-running disagreement he has with Obasanjo is personal, Soyinka said his motivation is the desire that those he described as cause of the nation’s problems do not continue to recycle themselves as the solution.

    He also dismissed Obasanjo as a hypocrite for denying that he did not have a hand in the third term agenda in 2006.

    Said the playwright: “I remember I was invited to a conference in Germany around the time the third term game was unfolding in Nigeria. Then, I received this frantic call from officials at the Nigerian embassy who confided in me that they had been told to prepare for Obasanjo’s third term in office. They expressed fears that should it succeed, the country might be plunged into a serious crisis. They were of the view that I could use my leverage to talk to him or help mobilise public opinions to dissuade him.

    “At the conference proper, I made sure I continually made poignant innuendos in the direction Obasanjo sat that day. But, typically, he kept shrugging his shoulders and looking the other way.

    “But when the opportunity came for a closer interaction at the dinner, I pointedly told him that ‘Obasanjo, you know you cannot try third term’. Suddenly, he charged back at me, saying, ‘Wole, you only have one vote!’ I remember the Nigerian envoy then to Germany, Prof. Tunde Adeniran, jovially remarked that, ‘Ah, Mr. President, Wole Soyinka has more than one vote o. You know when he says anything, people listen across the world.’

    “As soon as Obasanjo left the venue, I told Adeniran that ‘with what you’ve just said, be sure you’ve lost your job’. True, soon afterwards, Adeniran lost his job.”

    Corroborating Soyinka, Falana said contrary to Obasanjo’s continued denial, the former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice alluded in her book to how the former Nigerian leader prevailed on George Bush to support his third term bid. This, Falana said, Obasanjo never refuted.

    On the parlous energy situation in the country, Soyinka recalled that Obasanjo did not only frustrate Ige but also humiliated him.

    He said: “This was a man who said after Bola Ige died that we put somebody there, Bola Ige who did not know his left from right. He owes Bola Ige for maligning him, after humiliating him after sabotaging his genuine efforts to transform the power sector. It was sabotage and nothing less than a terrorist act against the electricity supply of the country.

    “Bola Ige was frustrated and his works sabotaged. In fact, he had done his homework before he took office. He summoned a group of experts and mapped out the transformation of the sector. But, he was sabotaged from the inside. Bola Ige asked Obasanjo to remove one Suleman Bello, who was the managing director of the corporation then. The consequences we are suffering today. Obasanjo collaborated and protected the system headed by Mr. Suleman Bello. I dare Obasanjo to meet me one on one on any podium to debate the power project.”

  • Soyinka: Obasanjo failed woefully

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo recorded “sumptuous spectacular failures” in the 11 years he steered the affairs of the nation as military Head of State and civilian President, Prof. Wole Soyinka has said.

    Soyinka’s assessment of the former leader is contained in the preface to his 148-page book, “Intervention VIII: Gani’s Unfinished Business”.

    He described Obasanjo as having a phobia for education and intellectualism.

    According to Soyinka, Obasanjo’s records in office are clothed with lies, deceptions, misrepresentations, distortions and denigration of others.

    The former president could not be reached for comments yesterday.

    Noting Obasanjo’s genuine attachment to the nation, Soyinka said it would be most unjust to label him an outright failure, notwithstanding that Obasanjo readily does so to his predecessors and successors in office.

    He said: “However, to state starkly that he has recorded sumptuous, spectacular failures in the total of 11 years of managing the Nigerian real estate is to stay within arguable borders, and that is where we choose to pitch our tent, daring even the most devoted of his apologists to dispute such an obvious assessment.”

    The Nobel laureate said it would be the highest form of moral dereliction to fail to present a glimpse of a dark, sinister side of such “a paternalistic, caring figure”.

    “This is a recurring decimal which now presents itself as a dedicated, even passionate rescue miss omer for a nation that is unarguably in need of a moral compass and competent leadership.”

    Soyinka faulted Obasanjo’s “seductive pretensions of ease and benign, protective assurance among school pupils”, noting that even Adolf Hitler loved children so much that “he created a Nazi Youth Brigade, a mind bending induction from which a subsequent leadership generation still strives,  remorsefully, to dissociate itself”.

    The poet said: “Not for  moment does one intend a comparison with that universal criminal, Adolf Hitler. We merely propose that cultivating the image of a committed child educationist in one’s dotage does not obliterate certain records, such as that instance when, as Head of State  our subject ordered that mothers, on their way to handover a letter of protest at the incineration of their children on the tarmac of Port Harcourt airport, should be stopped by all means…

    “Compared to such a spectacle of infanticidal horror and executive callousness, the educational phobia that led to a policy of rabid anti-intellectualism under his watch may be deemed mere trivia. Yet the damage done to a nation through such an unhindered  detestaion of educational institutions as the stamp of his ruling mandate remains to plague the nation.

    “And there are other acts of anti-intellectualism provable against our born-again educationist and developer of youthful minds, implemented at a time when it crucially mattered- under His Watch! This crafted images of childhood love constitute an obscenity, and remain offensive to any people of memory and discernment.

    “Even the crassest of such petulant deeds of misgovernance, born of insecurity, can however be mitigated, even amnestied by a late life penitence, and willingness to abuse the hypocrisy of self-exculpation.

    “Such mitigation cannot however be conceded if our subject persists in burnishing his rulership records with the ragged cloth of lies, deceptions, misrepresentations, distortions and persistent denigration of others – including non Nigerians, some of whose records in their zones of responsibilities, objectively leave his self attributed achievement open to dispute, and even outright dismissal.

    “Mitigation cannot be rationally considered if the nation’s present condition of intra-religious hospitality of the most blood curdling dimensions can be traced all the way back to his policy of appeasement when forces against national cohesion through religious fundamentalism first unfurled its banner.”

    Soyinka wrote on the much publicized “bid” by Obasanjo for a third term  – an allegation the former President denied. He said if he had wanted a third term he would have asked God who would have given it to him .

    Soyinka said: “There can be no amnesty for a leader who lavished bribe on legislators in his attempt to subvert the constitution  and foist himself on the nation as civilian dictator for life, yet continues to deny it. Such denials are insultingly offered in the face of robust, documented and repeated affirmation of this treasonable conduct, including by a number who collected his money and ran.

    “The denials continue from this practised obscurantist, depart open admission by those who were co-conspirators against democracy. The opportunism of image laundering in a season of popular discontent is a further denigration of the public capacity for objective discernment.

    “And yet, despite such glaring crimes of both commission and dismissive contempt, Nigerians are a people of almost hyper-naturally gifted for bypassing the past, cauterising their memories even to the point of collective perdition, determined to move into the future.”

    The playwright condemned Obasanjo’s efforts at building a nationwide coalition for a new leadership. He said:  “When, however, such an individual under the lens moves yet again to insert himself into a process of national recovery, attempts to hijack both tested and untested efforts, frustrate new energies, recruits and recycles jaded and equally compromised figures, the a gauntlet had been thrown at the feet of those who ‘watch the watchmen’, and a renewed battle line is drawn against any such Coalition of the Corrupt and its Convener.”

    Continuing, Soyinka said Obasanjo, who is the subject of the “Interventions”, “strikes one as being tormented by a hidden past, probably experiences the urge to make amends- don’t we all? I would not dare encroach on the province of psychologists but, with my limited deductions from a lifetime of literary engagement, I would diagnose, in this leading character, symptoms of a child at heart.

    “Alas, it is of that confused precocious that seeks to be relived, through exposure, of the burden of hidden malfeasances, in order to deserve notice, acceptance,  and restoration to parental love through correction, even punishment, however painful.

    “In adult life, as the child grows increasingly confronted by mortality, the expression changes to- a search for redemption. The path taken in pursuit of such a benign closure however reveals which of the many emotions have triumphed over the rest.

    “Summatively, it is the precocious child of malice that prevails. Three ponderous volumes of creative mendacity in a supposed autobiography- “My Watch”- attest to this, evoking that anguished cry from one of the celebrated creations of unrelieved malice of the theatrical world. In a moment of absolute spiritual nakedness and moral self-confrotnarion, he exclaimed: “Evil, be thought my good!”

    “So has it been with the aspiring mongoose known as Bros Shege, raised and bred in the sinister hatcheries of Otta Farm.”

     

  • Obasanjo failed spectacularly in office – Soyinka

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo recorded spectacular failures in the 11 years he steered the affairs of the nation as Head of State and civilian President, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, said on Friday.

    Soyinka stated this in the preface of his new 148-page book, Intervention VIII: Gani’s Unfinished Business, where he said Obasanjo had a phobia for education and intellectualism.

    According to Soyinka, Obasanjo’s rulership records were clothed with lies, deceptions, misrepresentations, distortions and denigration of others.

    Noting the ex-President’s genuine attachment to the nation, the Nobel laureate said it would be most unjust to label him an outright failure, notwithstanding that he readily does so to his predecessors and successors in office.

    He said: “However, to state starkly that he has recorded sumptuous, spectacular failures in the total of 11 years of managing the Nigerian real estate is to stay within arguable borders and that us where we choose to pitch our tent, daring even the most devoted of his apologists to dispute such an obvious assessment.”

    He said it would be the highest form of moral dereliction to fail to present a glimpse of a dark, sinister side of such “a paternalistic, caring figure.”

    “This is a recurring decimal which now presents itself as a dedicated, even passionate rescue misnomer for a nation that is unarguably in need of a moral compass and competent leadership.”

    Soyinka went further to fault Obasanjo’s “seductive pretensions of ease and benign, protective assurance among school pupils,” noting that even Adolf Hitler loved children so much that “he created a Nazi Youth Brigade, a mind bending induction from which a subsequent leadership generation still strives  remorsefully to dissociate itself.

    “Not for a moment does one intend a comparison with that universal criminal, Adolf Hitler. We merely propose that cultivating the image of a committed child educationist in one’s dotage does not obliterate certain records, such as that instance when, as Head of State our subject ordered that mothers, on their way to handover a letter of protest at the incineration of their children on the tarmac of Port Harcourt airport, should be stopped by all means.

    “Compared to such a spectacle of infanticidal horror and executive callousness, the educational phobia that led to a policy of rabid anti-intellectualism under his watch, may be deemed mere trivia. Yet the damage done to a nation through such an unhindered detestation of educational institutions as the stamp of his ruling mandate remains to plague the nation.

    “And there are other acts of anti-intellectualism provable against our born-again educationist and developer of youthful minds, implemented at a time when it crucially mattered- under his Watch! This crafted image of childhood love constitutes an obscenity, and remain offensive to any people of memory and discernment,” he added.

     

  • Soyinka, Agbakoba for Abiola’s 20th year remembrance July 7

    The June 12 Movement of Nigeria, in conjunction with Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola family, will mark the 20th year remembrance of the late President Abiola.

    The occasion will be commemorated with awards to heroes, heroines and martyrs of democracy in Nigeria on Saturday, July 7 at MKO Abiola Democracy House, MKO Abiola Crescent, off Toyin Street, Ikeja, at 10 a.m prompt.

    A statement yesterday by the organiser, Awa Bamiji, said Nobel Laureate Prof Wole Soyinka will chair the gathering while Mr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) is the keynote speaker.

  • 2019 polls: Obasanjo unfit to lead movement for reform —Soyinka

    A Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, yesterday said ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo is not the right Nigerian to lead any movement for reform on change of leadership in the country in 2019.

    He said Obasanjo has crossed the red line and his Coalition for Nigerian Movement (CNM) should not be glorified.

    He said the ex-President and other geriatric leaders of his generation should step aside and allow a new generation to lead the nation.

    Soyinka made his views known at a Conversation Night which was part of the 67th World Congress of the International Press Institute (IPI) in Abuja.

    He said he would unveil a pamphlet on his position on Obasanjo and his movement on July 3 at the Freedom Park in Lagos.

    He said: “ As for Obasanjo, I have news for him. And it has been a progressive thing.  You see me and Obasanjo fist to cuffs today and the following morning, you might see us embracing each other.  Circumstances are always important and even when he was in power,  if you could remember,  there were numerous times when I had to criticize him.

    “I believe Obasanjo has really crossed the red line because he is trying to put himself as the head of a recovery process. He is trying to hijack the recovery process in this nation and I say that he is one of the least worthy of one of the former heads of state to lead that kind of movement.

    “ I  have brought out a publication about that, the title is in Latin but it means; who watches the watchmen.

    “That publication is coming out simply because I will like to see new blood in governance in this nation and I think these corrupt and hypocritical geriatrics should stop recycling themselves and they should stop trying to co-opt their former cronies to take over the reigns of governance in this nation.

    “I invite you on July 3 to Freedom Park in Lagos when a little pamphlet would be published in which finally, we confront Obasanjo with events of the past which incidentally are not being newly articulated.

    “This nation forgets very very fast … Obasanjo is one the greatest hypocritical leader this nation has ever produced.”

    On his persistent criticisms of the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, Soyinka said: “I have nothing personal against Abacha. We had only met a couple of times.”

    But he said he could not be praising Abacha who allegedly misruled the nation and ran a corrupt government.

    He said he could not be walking on the street and see monuments in Abacha honour when the looted funds traced to him were still being traced and recovered all over the world

    He said: “If I walk into a street and I see a structure raised in honour of a torturer, a murderer so recognised by the  entire world that we are still chasing after his loot, I have a responsibility to  tell this President that you cannot be serious fighting corruption if you leave monuments in honour of that leader of misrule. So, I have nothing personal against Abacha.  We met a couple of times.”

  • Obasanjo is Nigeria’s most hypocritical former leader – Soyinka

    Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has accused former President of being the most hypocritical former leader of the country following his attempt to hijack the movement for political change.

    He stated this in Abuja on Saturday at a dinner organised by the International Press Institute (IPI).

    “Obasanjo has crossed the red line and I will launch a publication to expose him on July 3 at freedom park in Lagos,” Soyinka stated.

    He is trying to hijack a recovery process he is least worthy to lead.

    More details soon

     

     

  • FG invites Abiola’s family, Soyinka, Tinubu, Nwosu, activists to investiture

    The federal government last night rolled out the programme for the conferment of national honours on the late Chief Moshood Abiola, winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election, his running mate Ambassador Baba Gana Kinbige and the late human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi.

    The event is scheduled for Tuesday in Abuja less than a week after government announced the declaration of June 12 as Nigeria’s Democracy Day in remembrance of the election adjudged as the fairest ever in Nigeria’s history and its intention to confer honours of the three men.

    Abiola will be honoured with the   Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR), while Fawehinmi and Kingibe will receive the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON).

    The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, in a statement said the event will take place at the Conference Hall, State House, Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.

    He said: “Accordingly, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, the family of the late Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola and that of Chief Gani Fawehinmi, along with the underlisted key players of June 12 struggle are cordially invited:

    • Members of the National Executive Committee of the SDP including States Chairmen and Secretaries at the time of June 12, 1993
    • Governors elected under SDP platform
    • Former Senate Presidents – Iyorchia Ayu and Ameh Ebute and Speaker Agunwa Anekwe along with Principal Officers of the National Assembly elected under SDP platform
    • Speakers of the States Assembly elected under SDP platform
    • All Chairmen of the States Traditional Councils from the six South-Western States
    • Prof. Wole Soyinka
    • Mr. Femi Falana, SAN
    • Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
    • Chief Bisi Akande
    • Ms. Ayo Obe
    • Bayo Onanuga – The News
    • Kunle Ajibade – Tempo
    • Nosa Igiebor – Tell
    • Kayode Komolafe – Media Hope 93
    • Senator Janathan Zwingina – DG Hope 93
    • Comrade Frank Ovie Kokori
    • Prof. Humphrey Nwosu

    “Also invited are Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Speaker Yakubu Dogora, Principal Officers of the National Assembly, Members of the Federal Executive Council and all State Governors.

    “Accommodation has been reserved for all invitees at the NICON Luxury Hotel, Tafawa Balewa Way, area 11, Garki, Abuja from Monday, 11th June 2018. For further inquiries please contact William Alo, Permanent Secretary, Special Duties Office, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation by telephone on +234 803 585 4332.

    “Invitation letters have been despatched. However, should the invitation arrive late, this publication serves as a formal invitation.