Again, Soyinka attacks Obasanjo in new book
Again, Soyinka attacks Obasanjo in new book
Prof. Wole Soyinka
Gbenga Adeniji and Olaleye Aluko
Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has
advised former President Olusegun Obasanjo to desist from struggling to
restore Nigeria to the path of sanity and moderate rectitude, describing
him as ‘objectively unfitted’ for the role.
He urged him to instead head for a monastery.
Soyinka said, “…I know that deep inside,
there is a soakaway pond of personal insecurity struggling to be
drained. Beneath every bully, there is a scared product of insecurity
and troubled conscience. Now, fight your own demons as best as you can,
and feel free to flagellate Buhari (President Muhammadu) with all the
weapons in your armoury. I have only one demand: keep away from
movements struggling to restore this nation to the path of sanity and
even moderate rectitude. End your hijacking propensity.’’
Soyinka said these in the latest of his
interventions series, Interventions VIII, titled ‘Quis Custodiet Ipsos
Custodes?: Gani’s Unfinished Business’ officially released to the public
by Bookcraft on Tuesday. It formed the text of his speech at the 10th
memorial lecture of the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi.
He also described the Presidential
Library in Abeokuta, Ogun State, built by Obasanjo as ‘Presidential
Laundromat’, alleging that it was constructed with fraud.
He said, “That structure in Abeokuta
remains a moral eyesore to those who were in a position to obtain even a
glimmering of the proceedings that inflicted such a purulent carbuncle
on the landscape of my state, Ogun. However, even the grossest evil can
be turned to some good. When we were school pupils, one of our
illustrated reading texts was one entitled, ‘This is the house that Jack
built.’ Today, and forevermore, generations will point to that thing
which I have daubed the Presidential Laundromat and say: This is the
house that Fraud built.’’
The playwright also asked if someone
with Obasanjo’s ‘governance record dare accuse anyone of failing to rise
to the challenges of governance.’
Soyinka, who said one of the challenges
that had confronted Nigeria since military incursion into politics was
electricity, asked Obasanjo to tell Nigerians how he rose to the
challenges of power while he was in office for eight years.
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He added, “I dare Obasanjo to meet me
one-on-one on any podium to present the facts of that stewardship to the
Nigerian people… Just how did you, in eight years, rise to the
challenges of power generation for a population of a hundred and fifty
million people, endowed with enormous energy resources…
“Eight years-repeat, eight years in
office, and the elected estate manager of this vast territory could not
even provide the modicum level of power to activate even a low-level
cottage industrial culture. And such individual has the nerve to
sermonise about rising to challenges.’’
The essayist and poet also said that he
had a vested interest in the power industry and could claim to be an
insider in that ministry for a while when the late Bola Ige agreed to
serve as minister of power in Obasanjo’s cabinet against his (Soyinka’s)
personal conviction.
Besides, he noted that the allegation of
corruption against Obasanjo by a former Abia State governor, Chief Orji
Kalu, should be formally addressed, adding ‘‘again, we are also duty
bound to point out that the author of that damning expose is himself
standing trial on charges of corruption. We are aware that this pioneer
letter-writer has been summoned by the EFCC to substantiate his
claims.’’
Meanwhile, Obasanjo has been appointed
as a part-time academic coordinator at the National Open University of
Nigeria, Abeokuta Study Centre, Ogun State.
Our correspondent learnt that Obasanjo,
who received a Doctor of Philosophy in Christian Theology at the NOUN in
January 2018 and was the first PhD holder from the institution, was
conducted round his office on Tuesday by the director of the Abeokuta
centre, Prof. Ibrahim Salawu.
According to a release on Tuesday by the
NOUN Director of Media and Publicity, Ibrahim Sheme, the former
President was appointed as a facilitator at the institution by the NOUN
Vice-Chancellor, Prof Abdalla Adamu.
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Sheme said Obasanjo had expressed
satisfaction at the office space allotted him and promised to work for
the progress of the university.
The release said, “Former President of
Nigeria, Dr. Olusegun Obasanjo, is now a bona fide worker of NOUN, as he
inspected his office space at the institution’s Abeokuta Study Centre
in Ogun State on Tuesday, in his capacity as a facilitator. The VC, Prof
Adamu, had soon after the former President’s graduation in January
appointed him as a facilitator.
“A facilitator is a part-time academic
coordinator for students in the Open and Distance Learning system which
open universities operate.”
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