Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has described as ‘abominable distractions,’ statement by the Rivers State Commissioner for Information, Dr Austin Tam-George, that the state would demand refund from him (Soyinka) if he collected cash from the N82 million allegedly spent by immediate-past Governor, Rotimi Amaechi on a dinner to honour him.
Watch And Pray, Watch And Prey By Wole Soyinka
Soyinka, who reacted in a statement on Wednesday night, said it has never been his business to probe into the “catering and logistical implications” of the hundreds of recognitions he had enjoyed worldwide and wondered why the Ameachi gesture has become an issue under the ‘insecure’ incumbent of the Rivers State government lodge.
Although he said the allegation has made him saddened and ‘truly despair”, he added that he was indifferent to it.
Soyinka in the statement entitled, “Those who flounder in the sewage of corruption,” said: “This morning, I saw only the headlines in one or two print media regarding the 80th Birthday dinner to which I was hosted by the former governor of Rivers State, the Honorable Rotimi Amaechi, now Minister of Transportation. I ignored them. It was not, and remains not my business to probe into the catering and logistical implications of the hundreds of institutions and governments all over the world to whom I acknowledge an immense debt of unsolicited recognition over the years.
“Since then however, I have learnt of some unsavory statements by the insecure incumbent of the Rivers State government Lodge. These included a loose invitation to anti-crime agencies to investigate the potential crime of being honoured through any occasion. The unprecedented call by this governor is prescient of a warning I recounted in my recent pamphlet publication THE REPUBLIC OF LIARS, and was taken from my address to an anti-corruption global conference that took place in Tunisia two years ago. Those words were: CORRUPTION STRIKES BACK. In this ongoing instance, that expression translates most vividly as “Those who are neck deep in the sewage of corruption ensure that they splatter sewage in all possible and improbable directions.”
“I do however fully support the Wikeleaks call for multi-directional probes. I recommend further that he involve the services of INTERPOL to guarantee its extension to all international organisations and governments to whom I owe uncountable events of recognition – including birthday luncheons, dinners, cultural receptions and events of real, fictitious, or simply opportunistic flavoring – to which I have submitted myself.
“The descent to this present level of abominable distractions makes one truly despair. It is one that even I did not envisage when I warned – CORRUPTION STRIKES BACK! Whether it brings honour or dishonour to the nation is another matter – I am saddened, but indifferent.
“EFCC and company – over to you! You all know where I live,” noted The Nobel laureate.
Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has urged the Federal Government to employ more diplomacy in handling the agitation for the Republic of Biafra.
Watch And Pray, Watch And Prey By Wole Soyinka
Soyinka said statements like “Nigeria is indivisible”, “This won’t happen under my watch,” “Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable” would not help matters.
The Nobel laureate spoke in an interview on Channels Television programme, Channels Books’ Club.
Agitation for the Republic of Biafra gained more traction recently following the arrest of Director of outlawed Biafra Radio,Nnamdi Kanu.
The protesters had taken over the Niger Bridge, Onitsha, Anambra State blocking traffic and it took the intervention of security agents before they could be dislodged, leaving some persons dead in its wake.
Soyinka asked President Muhammadu Buhari to approach the agitation in a more diplomatic way, pointing out that he had said earlier that Biafra cannot be defeated.
According to him, ”Once an idea has taken off, you may defeat those behind it in a war but that does not mean the end of the idea.”
But he lamented that he had been misunderstood at the time.
He said the attitude of the government should be to sit down with the those leading the renewed agitation and ask: “What can we do to make the Igbo feel part of the country, what can we do to make them to feel that they belong and not alienated.
“This is what we are ready to push for in the overall governance content of the country. It is not to be carrying on that this will not happen under my watch; Nigeria is indivisible, Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable, he stated”
Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has distanced himself from a tribute he purportedly wrote in honour of the national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
In a tribute which has gone viral on the social media, Soyinka was quoted as saying that he admired Tinubu because he saved Nigeria from becoming a one-party state.
Soyinka was also alleged to have said that he would continue to stand by Tinubu no matter what.
The alleged tribute read in part, “I do not admire Tinubu because he is a saint. I do not admire Tinubu because he is from the South. I do not admire Tinubu because he is a Yoruba. If I want saints, I will proceed to heaven, not on earth. Every human is fallible. I admire Tinubu because he saved Nigeria from the danger of falling into a one-party state.
“He has nurtured many renowned national successors. He listened to the voice of the masses to surrender his personal ambition at the most critical moment. He strategically terminated the PDP’s 60-year ambition in 16 years.
“Anybody, any cabal, any Viju milk activist, attempting to humiliate Asiwaju must have me to contend with. An average the PDP man is angry with Asiwaju because he brought them to their knees. If anyone thinks that bringing down Asiwaju is his project, that mission will not only crash but it will boomerang.
“He owns Lagos! I hear you! Ask your grandfather and parents how they acquired your so-called family land. Is it God that allocated it to them? Prof. Wole Soyinka.”
However, Soyinka, while reacting in a statement he signed on Thursday, wondered why people continued to use his name to spread falsehood.
He asked members of the public to be careful about the things they read on the Internet.
He said, “It is difficult to prescribe for the sort of mind that finds itself so inadequate that it must foist its opinions on others, and with such confident sense of impunity. Kindly assist me in letting the public know that I am not in any way connected with the publication.
“I can only yet again recommend my recent ‘occasional’ publication, ‘The Republic of Liars,’ to the public as a cautionary tract, while the growing population of victims await the routine descent of the full operational wrath of Internet policing on all impudent impersonators.”
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on Monday frowned on the situation where pupils wear uniforms depicting their religious affiliations to schools across the country.
Soyinka spoke during the inauguration of a N750m school built by the Osun State Government in Ejigbo. The school was named after him.
Though Soyinka expressed happiness at the honour done him by Governor Rauf Aregesola, he warned against diving the pupils along religious lines by allowing them to wear uniforms that typified their religious affiliations.
Soyinka said there should be nothing to divide pupils along religious lines, adding that the feeling of holier than thou was one of the factors that brought about the abduction of the Chibok girls by Boko Haram insurgents.
He said, “One of the ways we can reduce this fatalistic sense of holiness is to reduce the element of difference. I wish to implore that we do not distinguish our children by their religions.”
Soyinka, however, commended the governor for what he had done to improve the standard of education in the state.
Aregbesola inaugurated the school established by his administration in Ejigbo.
The governor described Soyinka as the greatest scholar in Africa.
The Wole Soyinka Government High School, Ejigbo is a 3,000-capacity complex with 72 classrooms of 49 square-metres, each capable of sitting 49 students and has six offices for study groups.
Speaking on the occasion, the governor said no amount of money spent on education was too much, saying it deserved the utmost attention.
He said that in the first quarter of next year, his government would also inaugurate another set of schools in the same category.
Aregbesola said, “We can construct a good road that will last for 50 years and we are doing that, but this can never compare to the enlightenment an educated person receives in terms of its value to the society and humanity.
“The state of education prior to our coming was appalling and frighteningly so. Zoos were better than the places where the pupils were receiving education. Many of them were dilapidated and falling down.
“These schools were, therefore, not encouraging any serious learning or character building. The result was that the pupils themselves were behaving like animals. They were forming cult groups, fighting regularly with dangerous weapons and engaged in all immoral acts.
“These are children, aged seven and above. My heart bleeds to see the public education system disintegrate and become dysfunctional.”
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has described pro-Biafra agitators as miscreants who should be ignored.
Olusegun Obasanjo
Speaking in an exclusive interview with our correspondents at his Hilltop residence in Abeokuta, on Wednesday, Obasanjo described the agitations by the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra and other self-determination groups as misplaced.
According to Obasanjo, equating the agitations by pro-Biafra groups with the agitations that led to the Civil War amounted to making a mountain out of a molehill.
He said, “This is a fake agitation. You people make a mountain out of a molehill. These are boys who want to take people unaware and get money out of them in the name of Biafra. These are the people you should ignore, I don’t talk about Biafra. (Philip) Effiong came and said Biafra ceased to exist and since that day, Biafra has ceased to exist.”
It will be recalled that the Biafra leader as of the time the war ended, Philip Effiong, surrendered to Obasanjo by calling off the war.
Obasanjo said that in the spirit of “No victor, no vanquished,” the Nigerian nation absorbed Igbo people into the civil service and the military after the war, adding that there were no promises made to the then secessionists that the Nigerian state had not fulfilled.
He said, “We absorbed those we should absorb both into the civil service and into the military. Even those we didn’t absorb, who we initially regarded as being retired without benefits, later on we even gave them their benefits. Abandoned houses were returned. Within 10 years of the end of our Civil War, an Igbo man became the vice-president of our country.
“It took the Americans 100 years before they got to that point. So, what are you talking about? They have held all the ministerial positions existing in this country. We have Igbo as the Governor of Central Bank, Igbo has headed many parastatals in this country.
“That’s why these miscreants should be ignored. They want to get money and they go round and say, ‘We are still being victimised. We are still being treated badly in Nigeria,’ so that they can take money from people.”
Absolving Igbo leaders of complicity in the agitation, Obasanjo said they (Igbo leaders) were not in support of the agitation.
“I won’t blame the Igbo leaders. I will ignore them (the agitators). Igbo leaders that I’ve talked about, I mean the ones I’ve mentioned; Joe Irukwu won’t go out and do that type of thing, and many of them. The people who are doing this are the same people you will find in 419 business, they are the same people you will find in drugs all over the world. To them, this is another source of money for them as far as they are concerned,” Obasanjo said.
When asked his comment about a new book, InterInterventions, by Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, in which the laureate called him a child of circumstance, Obasanjo said, “Did he? I’ve not heard anything like that,” with a wave of hand.
Although he said an end would not be put to Boko Haram by the military, Obasanjo said it was necessary that President Muhammadu Buhari gave the military a target.
He said, “You have to have an objective, otherwise, if you say go and don’t have an objective, that’s not good enough for a leader but an objective is not cast in concrete. Look, I want you to finish a job in two days, though you know it could take probably four or five days, but you must give an objective.
“I believe that what President Muhammadu Buhari will get, and which he knows he can get, is that he can get the upper hand; the military will get the upper hand over Boko Haram and of course, I think we are working towards that. But we will not get the end of Boko Haram in three months or in six months.
“And even when you get the upper hand militarily, you have to do what you have to do – the socio-economic aspect.”
Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka yesterday vowed to “draw blood” with his latest book,InterInventions.
Watch And Pray, Watch And Prey By Wole Soyinka
The book, he said, would be his “vengeance” against “unprovoked assault of public lies” directed against him.
The popular playwright and essayist spoke at the formal inauguration of The Wole Soyinka Foundation, a retreat haven for writers.
He described InterInventions as “the nastiest book” he has ever written.
The 130 – page work – InterInventions, Between Defective Memory and Public Lie, A Personal Odyssey in The Republic of Liars, was presented to the public at the June 12 Cultural Centre Kuto, Abeokuta by the Edo State governor, Adams Oshiohmole.
Soyinka said the book is “so truthful that it hurts” and recommended it to people who “feel vengeful” towards purveyors of public lies because of its expected therapeutic value.
“(InterInventions), it is the nastiest book I have ever written. It is so truthful that it hurts… it is my vengeance against public lies. It is not one of the butterfly books. No, it is not a butterfly book.
“I want to draw blood (with it). I’m warning all of you, if you feel vengeful, read this book and you will be alright. It is like homeopathic medicine,” Soyinka said.
He lamented that public lies have become an industry of sort, multiplying itself and worsened by the social media facilitating the predisposition for lies.
On page seven of the book, he decried public lies – “lies of staggering impudence, especially considering the fact that, in most cases, both victims and their traducers are still living.”
According to him, there is the need for a “ritual of public purgation where both sides – such victims of lies and the traducers, are brought together before the public tribunal for the world to know the truth.”
Soyinka also gave insight into lies, allegedly against him by some individuals and past leaders, including former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, stating in first paragraph of page 82 that “it was a great fun (for him, Soyinka) to watch him(Daniel) lie his head off.”
He said he “would have gone insane” if he had not found a serene place to hide himself while doing his creative work.
Oshiomhole described Soyinka as a great and relentless fighter, saying the nation needs social warriors who speak the truth without giving a hoot whose ox is gored.
The governor, who attended the event in the company of his wife, added that The Wole Soyinka Foundation is a worthy cause that should be identified with by Nigerians.
The controversy surrounding the status and ownership of the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding deepened on Friday as the Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, described former Governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, as a liar.
Watch And Pray, Watch And Prey By Wole Soyinka
Reacting to some issues raised by Oyinlola on Thursday when he addressed a press conference in his town, Okuku, Osun State, Soyinka , on Friday, gave the former governor a one-week ultimatum to retract his statement.
According to him, Oyinlola lied against him when he said he opposed the establishment of the centre in 2008 and that he (the dramatist) discussed the matter with the late President, Umaru Yar’Adua.
Soyinka said in a statement he tagged ‘Prince Oyinlola in the Republic of Liars’, “How does one begin to slash through this thickening tissue of lies? Prince Oyinlola must be put to the strictest proof to substantiate several outrageous claims in his recent press statement. Failing to do so within one week from today will result in his taking his well-earned place in company of the current inmates of ‘The Republic of Liars’ – next in my series of ‘Interventions’, a public service series published by Bookcraft, due out in the next month.”
He described the allegation that he opposed the establishment of the centre as an exercise in “mind-blowing impudence.”
He added that it was also a lie that he (Soyinka) discussed the matter with former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Instead, he said, it was Oyinlola who wrote a letter to Jonathan requesting him to “call Wole Soyinka to order.”
Besides, the celebrated writer noted that he was not the one that instituted or initiated the law suit on the status of the centre.
“On the other hand, I did oppose, and most strenuously, the conspiracy by some parties to transfer the Ulli Beier archives to the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, situated in Abeokuta, even though paid for with the funds of Osun State. I opposed the recognition of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library as an affiliate of UNESCO in any category, since that library is a product of fraud, extortion and corrupt diversion of a nation’s resources.
“In this context, I collaborated with the late Gani Fawehinmi and Femi Falana. Action was taken in the same spirit as has continued to animate a number of civic organisations on the continent to prevent international image laundering by African leaders of questionable character, after losing credibility in governance. This has included higher institutions of learning and culture where millions were offered to endow chairs in their name.”
On Thursday, Oyinlola stressed that his permanent chairmanship of the Board of Trustees of the CBCIU was the condition given by the late Ullie Beire for giving his archives to the centre.
According to him, the condition was approved by the UNESCO and other stakeholders, including the Federal Government.
Oyinlola presented relevant documents and a court ruling in this regard.
But Soyinka, who was appointed the chairman of the board by Governor Rauf Aregbesola, insisted that such a clause and the fact that the centre was incorporated at the Corporate Affairs Commission were an anomaly.
As the controversy rages, stakeholders believe the Aregbesola administration has a duty to make its position known on the matter.
It has, however, yet to do so, as efforts made to get its reaction were not fruitful on Friday night.
But reacting to Soyinka’s ultimatum and allegations on Friday, Oyinlola denied lying against Soyinka.
Oyinlola said in a statement, “Soyinka should put his own (Soyinka’s) name on top of his list of liars now that he is writing his Republic of Liars. Liars hardly acknowledge truth when they see it.”
The Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has said that he has no respect for Obasanjo, who he described as an indescribable liar.
Watch And Pray, Watch And Prey By Wole Soyinka
Soyinka carpeted the former president on Friday night when he was responding to questions during a programme tagged: ‘An evening with Wole Soyinka’, organised by Globacom.
Asked to respond to Obasanjo’s assessment of him in the former president’s book titled ‘My Watch’, where he notes that Soyinka is good at hunting and wines but a political illiterate, Soyinka said that he was hardly bothered because he believed that Obasanjo was a liar.
Soyinka said, “Obasanjo is entitled to his opinion. But the question is: ‘Who respects the opinion of a liar?’
I can spend the whole night proving that he is a liar. Obasanjo was once described by an economist, the late Prof Ojetunji Aboyade, as an economic illiterate. They nearly ‘went into blow’ that night. It was Prof. Mabogunje who separated them.
“So, if an economic illiterate calls somebody a political illiterate, no problem at all.
“In ‘ My Watch’, Obasanjo told the first lie when he said he deplored lies. Anybody who said he never plotted to have an unconstitutional third term in office, even as a writer, I need a word to describe him.”
The former President and the Nobel laureate have been in a running battle taking swipes at each other over a lingering issue between them. Obasanjo had once stated that Soyinka once vowed that the differences between the two of them would not be resolved on earth.
Obasanjo had also in his book, My Watch, and at public events described Soyinka as an expert in wine matters than in political analysis.
He had said, “For Wole, no one can be good, nor can anything be spot-on politically except that which emanates from him or is ordained by him. His friends and loved ones will always be right and correct, no matter what they do or fail to do. He is surely a better wine connoisseur and a more successful aparo (guinea fowl) hunter than a political critic.
“Wole Soyinka is a gifted man. I have always acknowledged that but he is a bad politician and I have also always said that. That is my own point of view. He may agree with it, he may not agree with it. For instance, I know that if I want somebody to give me the best wine, one of the people I will go to is Wole Soyinka and I know he has a taste for good wine and I said that in the book.”
However, last year December, shortly after the book went public, Soyinka had, in a piece titled, ‘Watch and Pray, Watch and Prey’, vehemently protested such a description (of him), calling Obasanjo ‘’an expert liar, who lies to boost his ego.’’
But in an interview granted a private television station, Channels, on a programme tagged, ‘Book Club’, Obasanjo, while holding on to his words, said what he wrote about Soyinka was purely his view, adding that Soyinka did not have to agree with him.
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, said that former President Goodluck Jonathan was becoming authoritarian while in office.
Watch And Pray, Watch And Prey By Wole Soyinka
Soyinka also said that the pioneer Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu admitted to him in the UK that he (Ribadu) realised late that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was using him as EFCC boss.
Soyinka also said that the former President also committed what he described alarming errors of governance.
The playwright said he withdrew his support for Jonathan because he was drifting towards “fascism.”
Soyinka in an interview with the current edition of Zero Tolerance magazine, a publication of the EFCC, stated that Jonathan surrounded himself with ”unsavoury characters.”
He stated that it was important for any President or public officer to pick his advisers carefully because of the kind of characters who shielded the former President from certain happenings around hm.
Soyinka explained that he marched alongside others in order to ensure that Jonathan was sworn-in as the acting President in 2010, noting that the action was meant to protect the constitution and not about Jonathan.
He said, “We marched in order to protect the constitution, not the person of Jonathan. We retained a cordial relationship during his tenure. However despite some attacks I felt compelled to launch on him – and his wife. Jonathan committed some truly alarming errors of governance. He was propelling himself towards outright fascism.
“Asked by the interviewers if Jonathan was caged, he answered, “Correct. There are forces around Jonathan, you put your fingers around it, which he himself does not understand and that is why I stressed that, you’ve got to choose your circle of advisers very carefully, when you are in charge. He’s been caged; things are going on in his ministry that he did not know about.”
He stressed, for instance, that the former President did not know that King of Morocco had withdrawn his ambassador to Nigeria in March, 2015 until a week later.
He further stated that the former leader surrounded himself with corrupt individuals.
“When it comes to the issue of corruption, Jonathan surrounds himself with certain unsavoury characters and that is something you don’t have to do if you are in charge,” he said.
Soyinka said that a leader dedicated to the fight against corruption should ensure that the agencies entrusted with the responsibility to fight the scourge were strengthened.
According to him, he told pioneer Chairman of the EFCC, Ribadu, that he was being used by Obasanjo but he did not believe it.
He stated that the former EFCC boss admitted to him when he was sent on exile in the UK that he did realise very late that OBJ was using him.
Soyinka stressed that it was imperative to remove the link between power and corruption in Nigeria.
He said, “Why should a President involve himself in what is already structurally established and dedicated to that purpose?
“I warned your former boss, Ribadu, I told him that, your task will be done when in the course of your investigation; you discover that the source of the problem is the very person who appointed you.
“He looked shocked a bit, and eventually he and I met in London, after he was removed and (the current Governor of Kaduna State Mallam Nasir) el-Rufai was also in exile after they tried to kill him. We met and Ribadu refused to sit down. I asked him to sit but he said no, that until I accepted his apology, he won’t sit down. I asked what apology? And he said ‘I should have listened to you. I failed to listen to you.
“Something you have said to me and I failed to listen’ Ribadu admitted that he realised very late that Obasanjo was using him.
“So we have to destroy that link between power and corruption. Audu Ogbeh confirmed what I am telling you. Then, it was ‘go after this one, go after that one, ahh you did not arrest him? Arrest his mother! I am challenging Obasanjo to deny it.
“So, when you are looking for corruption, you should look at the entire stratum of the society, while some forms of corruption are direct, others are indirect.
The professor also criticised the former President on his choice of campaign managers during the presidential elections, noting that he phoned Jonathan and cautioned him on his choice of former Ogun State governor, Gbenga Daniel, as one of his managers.
“Do you need somebody like that? What about somebody like Gbenga Daniel who closed down a legislature for almost a year? When I heard this, I called Jonathan, I asked him, ‘is this your understanding of democracy.”
“A governor closes down an assembly with the aid of the police and the place is under lock with ‘Mopol’ guarding it. When Jonathan selected this person as his campaign manager in Abuja, I telephoned him; I said does this support democracy that you choose this person. It is not a question of this person is a governor therefore come to my party, I can work with him. No, when a president picks somebody for a particular duty it means you are pointing that person out as an aspect of government so you see, it is impossible for me to pick Jonathan as a candidate,” he said.
Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka yesterday tasked President Muhammadu Buhari to expedite more action to end pervasive insecurity in the country occasioned by the outlawed Boko Haram sect.
Watch And Pray, Watch And Prey By Wole Soyinka
Soyinka, who made this disclosure during a lecture delivered at the third convocation ceremony of the Kwara State University, (KWASU) Malete, also warned that the temple of learning may soon be eroded in the country.
According to him, “Nigerians should not see the sufferings, brutality and terror and insurgency being witnessed by some states in the northern parts of the country as their problems alone”.
He expressed fear that looking at insurgency as problem of a section of the country could cause spread of the hazards, adding that no fresh approach had been involved in the fight against the menace by the new administration and thus no difference witnessed so far.
He also emphasised that the temple of learning must be protected irrespective of gender or religion, saying, “no woman, no nation”.
Soyinka, in a lecture titled, ‘Science and Imagination in Temple of Knowledge’, asked rhetorically, “can science and religion co-exist?”, and described members of the Boko Haram sect as enemies of sound knowledge.
He said members of Boko Haram are not actually without any knowledge, since they knew the science of making bomb and killing people, adding that they had failed to acquire knowledge on human co-existence.
He also decried agony, humiliation and trauma of the abducted Chibok girls in the hands of their captors, as they embarked on their secondary school qualifying examination, saying that he was always sad whenever he relived the imagination of experience the girls would be going through, described the situation as irony.
Also speaking, the Chancellor of the university, Prof. Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, warned that education sector in the country was in dire straits, due to constraints of funds.
“Basic infrastructural, teaching and learning facilities are pathetically lacking in most areas of academic pursuits in our universities which has painfully led to the ‘half-baked graduates’ syndrome”, he said.
The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on Thursday in Lagos said the 2013 Nigeria Governors’ Forum crisis paved the way for the end of the 16-year rule of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Tinubu, Soyinka
They made the observation during the public presentation of ‘Dynamics of Change: The Amaechi Years,’ a book edited by a former Managing Director ofDaily Times, Yemi Ogunbiyi, and author, Chidi Amuta.
They explained that the crisis provided the spark that led to a common sense revolution as witnessed in the defeat of the PDP by the All Progressives Congress.
The NGF crisis erupted from an election organised by the 36 governors of the federation. Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State garnered 19 votes while his Plateau State counterpart, Jonah Jang, had 16 votes.
However, the Presidency chose to recognise Jang as the chairman, thereby causing a split in the forum and the defection of five governors from the PDP to the APC.
Tinubu, in comments at the event, said when the split happened, he quickly wooed Amaechi.
He described the Rivers State governor as the general that the APC used to secure victory during the just concluded general elections.
Tinubu said the APC played on President Goodluck Jonathan’s lack of understanding of Arithmetic to defeat him.
He said, “Governor Amaechi and most of the governors thought of a different arithmetic algebra without derivative. Thirty six minus 16 is equal to X and if X is greater than 16, suggest the answer and if you can’t, you have failed democratic arithmetic.
“Amaechi resisted it and we joined him in the resistance. Of course, how can a leader educate and be responsible for the future of our citizens if he cannot do a division of sum total of a number, 36? We are glad today that we decided and we got rid of that leadership through ‘General’ Amaechi.”
Tinubu stated that his message of a common sense revolution gripped Nigeria and opened their eyes.
He said for instance, the Civic Centre on Victoria Island used to be a dumpsite but the state government sold it to the Chairman of Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia, who turned it into a revenue-spinning machine that now pays tax to the state.
The APC leader said it was the same method that the APC would use in redefining the history of Nigeria.
He said, “We are in this hall because of its good construction. The hall is part of a common sense revolution. It used to be a dumpsite but we asked our friend, Jim Ovia, to excavate it and pay whatever price to the government. He took the risk and it is paying off. It is part of the common sense revolution.’’
The former governor also enjoined all APC stakeholders and other Nigerians to brace for the post-election challenges.
He said, “Elections are over and both the leaders and citizens must brace themselves to meet the challenges required to build a better, more prosperous nation. Indeed, even as we subscribe to the tenets of common sense revolution, we must retool ourselves; the new leadership must embark on policies that will improve the general well-being of our people.
“This revolution is not a violent one to tear things down; it is a revolution to rescue us from violence, injustice and poverty. It is a positive one to rescue, repair and restructure the nation and its institutions in ways that further collective prosperity and well-being. The only violence that is to be done is to violence, injustice and poverty.”
Tinubu said Amaechi, who was the director-general of the APC Campaign Organisation, would be given a key position in the incoming Buhari administration for his role in the party’s victory.
He said what Amaechi and his colleagues in the NGF wanted was a better management of the Federation Account .
The former governor said, “Governor Amaechi and most of the governors want a properly defined federalist relationship with the government at the centre. The President would have none of that as in the notable example of the management of the federation account. This is, therefore, another great opportunity to salute Amaechi’s rare courage of conviction and sense of purpose.
“The APC change agenda is anchored on the three Rs – Reform, Relief, and Recovery. It is the tripod upon which Nigeria must operate in order to unleash her potential.
“Rotimi will go on from here to continue to serve Nigeria in key positions. He will not be alone. He will share the company of many change agents and professionals who have cast their lots with the new political order under the leadership of the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari.”
Like Tinubu, Soyinka pointed out that the NGF crisis marked the beginning of the end of the Jonathan administration.
Soyinka said one of his close friends in Aso Rock had urged him to talk to Amaechi to stop attacking the Presidency as his party(APC) would not succeed in defeating Jonathan.
The playwright, who is a notable critic of Jonathan, said the two architects of the APC victory were Tinubu and Amaechi.
He said, “In the political atmosphere today, whatever you call it, change or hope or cautious hope and or careless hope, I recognise two personalities in particular who led the chant of change. One of them, I call him the architect of the process, the architect in fact, that houses the essence of hope Bola Tinubu.
“The other person (Amaechi) was unconsciously, perhaps, the arrowhead of that charge that led to the change and that is the man that we gather here to celebrate.
“He was the one who said no, we cannot turn the clock backwards. Nothing about the philosophy of the clock runs against what we were hoping for. It was a very unpopular and risky decision to take. But it exposed to us the basic arithmetic fallacy of governance in demonstrating that when 16 is said to be higher than 19, something is fundamentally wrong and the same kind of arithmetic leads to the cooking of figures in governance.
“And it was within that nexus that he stood up and challenged even his own colleagues, and said let’s change the mentality of the stock, let us re-orientate it towards the people and towards the nation and the electorate.”
In his remarks, Amaechi said he and Tinubu had disagreements during the electioneering but were able to put their differences aside in the interest of the party.
He said Jonathan destroyed the governors’ forum but expressed joy that with the APC victory, things would return to normal.
He said, “I was determined that there should be a change because if there’s no change, things will not move. Even before our convention, I got Asiwaju Tinubu angry. I went to him and implored that we should not fight or disagree over issues.
“I told him that the important thing was for us to win first and after which, we can disagree. I believe that we must win and make a change. I am ready to make a sacrifice.
“I am proud to be a part of the change process. I am not stubborn but principled. I speak the truth and abide by the rules. In the governors’ forum, we set up a mechanism where we go from state to state to see how the governors were faring, unfortunately, the President scattered the forum.”
The Harvard University Hutchins Centre for African and American Research in the United States has said that it will release the video of the lecture delivered by Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, within a week.
Watch And Pray, Watch And Prey By Wole Soyinka
This was contained in an email reply to one of our correspondents on Soyinka’s alleged comments that he labelled Igbo as people who voted in the last general elections based on their “stomach.”
Some online media had quoted Soyinka as saying Igbo were politically naive while delivering a lecture titled, “‘Predicting Nigeria, Electoral Ironies,” at the institution.
He was quoted as saying “The Igbo are probably the only group of Nigerians that you can predict with great accuracy whom they will vote for in an election, because they tend to put their votes where their stomachs take them; suffering as it were, from incurable money-mindedness, as they would stop at nothing in their quest for personal financial gain.”
However, Soyinka said in a statement on Tuesday that it was unfortunate that people could tell lies against him.
The playwright described those who believe the report as morons.
He said the entire lecture was recorded on video and anyone who was interested could access it on the Internet.
He said, “I have just read a statement attributed to me on a news outlet, evidently one of the Internet infestations. My lecture at the Hutchins Centre, Harvard University, was video recorded. Anyone who believes what I am alleged to have said must be a moron – repeat, a moron.
“It is demeaning, sickening and boring to have to deal with these cowards who cannot fight their own battles but must fasten their imbecilic pronouncements on others. Only the mentally retarded will credit this comment attributed to me regarding the Ndigbo voting pattern in the last elections.
“I strongly suspect the author of this despicable concoction, and may make a further statement, once the source is verified.”
The Harvard centre, has however, stated that it will post the video online. The institution, however, said it would not release transcripts of Soyinka’s lecture.
The email read, “We expect the recent Wole Soyinka talk to be posted via video on the Hutchins Centre website within a week. However, transcripts of the talk will not be provided. Thank you for contacting the Hutchins Centre.”
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, says he believes that the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, cannot be worse than past presidents because he will be guided by a sense of history.
Watch And Pray, Watch And Prey By Wole Soyinka
He, however, said that he “is cautiously optimistic” about Buhari’s performance.
Soyinka said this while delivering a lecture titled, ‘Predicting Nigeria, Electoral Ironies’ at the Harvard University Hutchins Centre for African and African American Research in the United States, according to a gazette by the institution.
A former US Ambassador to Nigeria, Walter Carrington, had asked Soyinka if Buhari could reform Nigeria like the late Singaporean leader, Lee Kuan Yew.
In his response, Soyinka said he was optimistic. He added that Buhari might deal ruthlessly with corrupt politicians.
Soyinka said, “I am very, very cautiously optimistic.”
He predicted that Buhari would be influenced by those around him to “keep his nose to the letter of the law. In his zeal to absolutely eradicate corruption, he might take advantage of ambiguous areas in the law and the constitution to empower himself to deal very ruthlessly and quickly with those who have robbed the nation blind.”
Soyinka reasoned that Buhari was unlikely to do worse than his predecessors.
He, however, said it would be naive for Nigerians to think that Buhari is the messiah.
He said, “I think that Buhari has a sense of history. He knows that he must make a mark, a very positive mark, on Nigeria to be able to live with himself, or die with a clean conscience. We must make sure that Nigerians are not allowed to forget his past. They should not think that the messiah has finally arrived.
“I think we stay on guard and continue to do what has needed to be done for the past 20 years or so.”
Soyinka said he believed that terrorism would continue for a long time because those perpetrating the act were of the belief that they were doing God’s work.
He said, “We will never get rid of Boko Haram. They are jihadists who wish to impose Sharia law and ban Western learning across Nigeria as indoctrinated. They are fanatics who believe that if they die in the cause, they will go straight to heaven where they believe literally in the 77 virgins awaiting their arrival.”
– See more at: http://www.punchng.com/news/im-cautiously-optimistic-about-buhari-says-soyinka/#sthash.jFglV6Hl.dpuf
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has described the presidential and National Assembly elections as the most vicious, unprincipled, vulgar and violent he had ever witnessed.
Watch And Pray, Watch And Prey By Wole Soyinka
Soyinka, in an interview with TheGuardian UK on Sunday, was quoted as saying, “We’re talking about a very positive response by the public in terms of determination to register and vote but, you know, this has been one of the most vicious, unprincipled, vulgar and violent exercises I have ever witnessed.
“I just hope we won’t go down as being the incorrigible giant of Africa.”
According to Soyinka, the stakes appear to be so high that all scruples have been set aside and it’s very distressing to compare this election with that of 1993, which was one of the most orderly, civilised and resolute elections the country ever had.
He said, “This one was like a no-holds-barred kind of election, especially, frankly, from the incumbency side. One shouldn’t be too surprised anyway given the kind of people who are manning the barricades for the incumbent candidate.
“Most expensive, most prodigal, wasteful, senseless, I mean really insensitive in terms of what people live on in this country.
“This was the real naira-dollar extravaganza, spent on just subverting, shall we say, the natural choices of people. Just money instead of argument, instead of position statements.
“And of course the sponsoring of violence in various places, in addition to this festive atmosphere in which every corner, every pillar, every electric pole is adorned with one candidate or the other, many of them in poses which remind one of Nollywood.”
Soyinka, who told The Guardian how he was recently invited by President Goodluck Jonathan to discuss various issues, said, “We even discussed life after power, whenever that takes place.
“It was difficult for me to decide from his side how readily he might accept defeat. He absolutely swore that if he lost he was going back to Otuoke village. If I take him literally, I think he will accept the result, but I’ve learned never to trust any politician from here to there, even if they’re just coming out of communion. So I really don’t know.
“I think Nigerians have had a very rough time over the last few years with Boko Haram and all kinds of insecurity, failure of governance and so on. I think we deserve to have this period as a period of comparative tranquillity and peace of mind to reconstruct and address some really fundamental issues of society. So I really hope the result, however gracelessly or grudgingly, will be accepted by the loser.”
Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has raised the alarm that “illegal, sinister and power-grabbers” are bent on scuttling the country’s current democratic process.
The power-grabbers, according to him, are the ones pushing for the imposition of interim government on the country.
He said during an interview withSaharaTV, a United States-based online broadcast station operated by SaharaReporters, that what he was sure of, was that President Goodluck Jonathan knew such people.
The 80-year-old playwright, who on Wednesday told a German radio station,Deutsche Welle, that he feared there were “clear indications of a military intervention,” said with the current political situation and the insurgency in the North-East, Nigeria was facing its most dangerous period.
He said in spite of the challenges, what bothered him most, was the plot by some people to take over the rein of the country illegally.
Soyinka said, “This is what bothers me deeply: There are people who see this as an opportunity for their own political and sinister activities in the country. Therefore, we are not even united against the dangerous enemy of the country. The elections themselves are being used as an opportunity of sowing bitter seed of discord and for power-grabbing.
“It is now an established fact that there had been moves towards scuttling the democratic process by instituting a so-called interim government. But the proof is there of some participants in meetings for the formation of an interim government. Why form an interim government when there is an electoral process?
The Nobel laureate stated that he spoke personally with the President to ascertain his involvement in the plot to foist an interim government on Nigerians.
“I went to President Jonathan and I asked him, and he was to all appearances outraged by the very suggestion. I remember he used an expression, ‘If such a thing is going on it is outside my wish or my will. After I have been elected by the entire nation, isn’t being the head of an interim government a demotion and an undignifying position?’” Soyinka said.
“Maybe there are forces in operation in this nation during this very critical period about which he knows of that is the answer which I could make and it is up to him to sort himself out in contending with these illegal forces,” the literary icon said.
Soyinka therefore called on Nigerians not to be complacent about the current political situation in the country.
He said, “I believe that these elections, going by his (Jonathan) body language… it is very difficult to penetrate truthfully and deeply into the minds of politicians… going by his body language, I think Jonathan has no intention of scuttling the elections.
“In other words, the elections would take place but what kind of elections would we have? And what might be the aftermath of the elections? He has repeatedly said, ‘I’m going back to Otuoke if I lose the election.’ I just hope we don’t wake up one day with our complacent attitude and find out that we, as a people, have been overthrown by very sinister, illegal and useless forces.”
He had told Deutsche Welle on Wednesday that “ex-military officers and security officers were trying to push aside the political contestants and use the unrest (in the North-East) as an excuse to establish an interim government.
Soyinka explained that “the nature of the interim government wants to pretend it’s not really a military intervention.”
He added that “a few political leaders, well-known civilians, want to give the veneer of civilian structure, but basically it’s a kind of political intervention.”
The Nobel laureate, who stated that Nigeria “is aspiring very hard to become a failed state,” also lamented the increasingly aggressive direction the election campaign in Nigeria was taking.
Soyinka told DW that while he doesn’t support the opposition’s move to file criminal charges against Mrs. Patience Jonathan at the International Criminal Court, her comments should be checked.
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on Thursday dismissed claims that he had endorsed some politicians as his presidential and governorship candidates ahead of the February elections.
Watch And Pray, Watch And Prey By Wole Soyinka
Soyinka, in a piece titled, ‘Identity Thieves and the 2015 Election Peace Accord,’ warned those spreading the rumour of his purported endorsement of candidates “to be less gullible, and avoid becoming cheap conduits for the deception industry.”
He said, “Let me thus seize the occasion of the Abuja accord to state categorically that I have never made a statement endorsing any presidential or governorship contestant. All such attributions are fabrications by faceless, often self-appointed agents of deception, and should be publicly pilloried.
“Whenever I choose to declare support for a candidate – as is my electoral right – I shall ensure that I deploy a medium that places my authorship beyond dispute.”
Reacting to the peace pact signed by President Goodluck Jonathan and Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) on Wednesday to ensure violence-free polls, Soyinka said he was impressed with the outcome of the meeting.
He described the pact as a “positive step in the direction of democracy.”
He commended the efforts of a former Secretary-General of the United Nation, Kofi Annan, and a former Secretary-General of Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, in ensuring the success of the accord.
The Nobel Laureate said if the peace pact was adhered to with sincerity, it would ensure a wholesome space for future elections and avert further violence.
“It might even come close to what the democratic ideal should be, as canvassed by others, including Governor Babatunde Fashola a few years ago,” Soyinka added.
He, however, said he was disappointed that the communiqué issued after the peace meeting made no reference to the victims of political violence.
He said, “From personal interest, however, I was disappointed that the communiqué makes no reference to the violence done to members of the electorate whose identities are stolen, abused and debased during this exercise.
“It is rapidly becoming commonplace to encounter totally fictitious statements, even entire interviews published and attributed to unsuspecting authorship. This criminal proceeding has even involved the cloning of media mastheads to which non-existent interviews are then attached. To render it in local parlance, this is political 419, and of the most despicable brand.
“While it would be unjust to place direct responsibility on the contestants, one must stress that they also have a moral responsibility to denounce these dirty tricksters in the strongest terms, even in their own interest.
“The resentment inspired in victims of such cowardly conduct cannot but impact on their own political image. The media must also protect itself by taking necessary measures against such unprincipled confusionists. It is the democratic right of every citizen to know exactly who is saying what on issues that affect their political choices.
“I take a less serious – indeed, near carnivalesque view of the opportunistic and sometimes de-contextualised use of genuine quotes from statements I have made in the past – that is a different matter entirely. As a non-pensioned writer, however, and thus dependent on the proceeds of intellectual property, such users should expect to hear from my literary agents.
“I join General Abdulsalami and others in hoping that 2015 prove a live-and-learn election year, not a do-or-die!”
This intervention has been provoked, not so much by the ambitions of General Buhari to return to power at the head of a democratic Nigeria, as by declarations of support from directions that leave one totally dumbfounded. It would appear that some, myself among them, had been overcomplacent about the magnitude of an ambition that seemed as
Watch And Pray, Watch And Prey By Wole Soyinka
preposterous as the late effort of General Ibrahim Babangida to aspire yet again to the honour of presiding over a society that truly seeks a democratic future. What one had dismissed was a rash of illusions, brought about by other political improbabilities that surround us, however, is being given an air of plausibility by individuals and groupings to which one had earlier attributed a sense of relevance of historic actualities. Recently, I published an article in the media, invoking the possible recourse to psychiatric explanation for some of the incongruities in conduct within national leadership. Now, to tell the truth, I have begun to seriously address the issue of which section of society requires the services of a psychiatrist. The contest for a seizure of rationality is now so polarized that I am quite reconciled to the fact it could be those of us on this side, not the opposing school of thought that ought to declare ourselves candidates for a lunatic asylum. So be it. While that decision hangs in the balance however, the forum is open. Let both sides continue to address our cases to the electorate, but also prepare to submit ourselves for psychiatric examination.
The time being so close to electoral decision, we can understand the haste of some to resort to shortcuts. In the process however, we should not commit the error of opening the political space to any alternative whose curative touch to national afflictions have proven more deadly than the disease. In order to reduce the clutter in our options towards the forthcoming elections, we urge a beginning from what we do know, what we have undergone, what millions can verify, what can be sustained by evidence accessible even to the school pupil, the street hawker or a just-come visitor from outer space. Leaving Buhari aside for now, I propose a commencing exercise that should guide us along the path of elimination as we examine the existing register of would-be president. That initial exercise can be summed up in the following speculation: “If it were possible for Olusegun Obasanjo, the actual incumbent, to stand again for election, would you vote for him?”
If the answer is “yes”, then of course all discussion is at an end. If the answer is ‘No’ however, then it follows that a choice of a successor made by Obasanjo should be assessed as hovering between extremely dangerous and an outright kiss of death. The degree of acceptability of such a candidate should also be inversely proportionate to the passion with which he or she is promoted by the would-be ‘godfather’. We do not lack for open evidence about Obasanjo’s passion in this respect. From Lagos to the USA, he has taken great pains to assure the nation and the world that the anointed NPN presidential flag bearer is guaranteed, in his judgment, to carry out his policies. Such an endorsement/anointment is more than sufficient, in my view, for public acceptance or rejection. Yar’Adua’s candidature amounts to a terminal kiss from a moribund regime. Nothing against the person of this – I am informed – personable governor, but let him understand that in addition to the direct source of his emergence, the PDP, on whose platform he stands, represents the most harrowing of this nation’s nightmares over and beyond even the horrors of the Abacha regime. If he wishes to be considered on his own merit, now is time for him, as well as others similarly enmeshed, to exercise the moral courage that goes with his repudiation of that party, a dissociation from its past, and a pledge to reverse its menacing future. We shall find him an alternative platform on which to stand, and then have him present his credentials along those of other candidates engaged in forging a credible opposition alliance. Until then, let us bury this particular proposition and move on to a far graver, looming danger, personified in the history of General Buhari.
The grounds on which General Buhari is being promoted as the alternative choice are not only shaky, but pitifully naive. History matters. Records are not kept simply to assist the weakness of memory, but to operate as guides to the future. Of course, we know that human beings change. What the claims of personality change or transformation impose on us is a rigorous inspection of the evidence, not wishful speculation or behind-the-scenes assurances. Public offence, crimes against a polity, must be answered in the public space, not in caucuses of bargaining. In Buhari, we have been offered no evidence of the sheerest prospect of change. On the contrary, all evident suggests that this is one individual who remains convinced that this is one ex-ruler that the nation cannot call to order.
Buhari – need one remind anyone – was one of the generals who treated a Commission of Enquiry, the Oputa Panel, with unconcealed disdain. Like Babangida and Abdusalami, he refused to put in appearance even though complaints that were tabled against him involved a career of gross abuses of power and blatant assault on the fundamental human rights of the Nigerian citizenry.
Prominent against these charges was an act that amounted to nothing less than judicial murder, the execution of a citizen under a retroactive decree. Does Decree 20 ring a bell? If not, then, perhaps the names of three youths – Lawal Ojuolape (30), Bernard Ogedengbe (29) and Bartholomew Owoh (26) do. To put it quite plainly, one of those three – Ogedengbe – was executed for a crime that did not carry a capital forfeit at the time it was committed. This was an unconscionable crime, carried out in defiance of the pleas and protests of nearly every sector of the Nigerian and international community – religious, civil rights, political, trade unions etc. Buhari and his sidekick and his partner-in-crime, Tunde Idiagbon persisted in this inhuman act for one reason and one reason only: to place Nigerians on notice that they were now under an iron, inflexible rule, under governance by fear.
The execution of that youthful innocent – for so he was, since the punishment did not exist at the time of commission – was nothing short of premeditated murder, for which the perpetrators should normally stand trial upon their loss of immunity. Are we truly expected to forget this violation of our entitlement to security as provided under existing laws? And even if our sensibilities have become blunted by succeeding seasons of cruelty and brutality, if power itself had so coarsened the sensibilities also of rulers and corrupted their judgment, what should one rightly expect after they have been rescued from the snare of power” At the very least, a revaluation, leading hopefully to remorse, and its expression to a wronged society. At the very least, such a revaluation should engender reticence, silence. In the case of Buhari, it was the opposite. Since leaving office he has declared in the most categorical terms that he had no regrets over this murder and would do so again.
Human life is inviolate. The right to life is the uniquely fundamental right on which all other rights are based. The crime that General Buhari committed against the entire nation went further however, inconceivable as it might first appear. That crime is one of the most profound negations of civic being. Not content with hammering down the freedom of expression in general terms, Buhari specifically forbade all public discussion of a return to civilian, democratic rule. Let us constantly applaud our media – those battle scarred professionals did not completely knuckle down. They resorted to cartoons and oblique, elliptical references to sustain the people’s campaign for a time-table to democratic rule. Overt agitation for a democratic time table however remained rigorously suppressed – military dictatorship, and a specifically incorporated in Buhari and Idiagbon was here to stay. To deprive a people of volition in their own political direction is to turn a nation into a colony of slaves. Buhari enslaved the nation. He gloated and gloried in a master-slave relation to the millions of its inhabitants. It is astonishing to find that the same former slaves, now free of their chains, should clamour to be ruled by one who not only turned their nation into a slave plantation, but forbade them any discussion of their condition.
So Tai Solarin is already forgotten? Tai who stood at street corners, fearlessly distributing leaflets that took up the gauntlet where the media had dropped it. Tai who was incarcerated by that regime and denied even the medication for his asthmatic condition? Tai did not ask to be sent for treatment overseas; all he asked was his traditional medicine that had proved so effective after years of struggle with asthma!
Nor must we omit the manner of Buhari coming to power and the pattern of his ‘corrective’ rule. Shagari’s NPN had already run out of steam and was near universally detested – except of course by the handful that still benefited from that regime of profligacy and rabid fascism. Responsibility for the national condition lay squarely at the door of the ruling party, obviously, but against whom was Buhari’s coup staged? Judging by the conduct of that regime, it was not against Shagari’s government but against the opposition. The head of government, on whom primary responsibility lay, was Shehu Shagari. Yet that individual was kept in cozy house detention in Ikoyi while his powerless deputy, Alex Ekwueme, was locked up in Kiri-kiri prisons. Such was the Buhari notion of equitable apportionment of guilt and/or responsibility.
And then the cascade of escapes of the wanted, and culpable politicians. Manhunts across the length and breadth of the nation, roadblocks everywhere and borders tight as steel zip locks. Lo and behold, the chairman of the party, Chief Akinloye, strolled out coolly across the border. Richard Akinjide, Legal Protector of the ruling party, slipped out with equal ease. The Rice Minister, Umaru Dikko, who declared that Nigerians were yet to eat from dustbins – escaped through the same airtight dragnet. The clumsy attempt to crate him home was punishment for his ingratitude, since he went berserk when, after waiting in vain, he concluded that the coup had not been staged, after all, for the immediate consolidation of the party of extreme right-wing vultures, but for the military hyenas.
The case of the overbearing Secretary-General of the party, Uba Ahmed, was even more noxious. Uba Ahmed was out of the country at the time. Despite the closure of the Nigerian airspace, he compelled the pilot of his plane to demand special landing permission, since his passenger load included the almighty Uba Ahmed. Of course, he had not known of the change in his status since he was airborne. The delighted airport commandant, realizing that he had a much valued fish swimming willingly into a waiting net, approved the request. Uba Ahmed disembarked into the arms of a military guard and was promptly clamped in detention. Incredibly, he vanished a few days after and reappeared in safety overseas. Those whose memories have become calcified should explore the media coverage of that saga. Buhari was asked to explain the vanished act of this much prized quarry and his response was one of the most arrogant levity. Coming from one who had shot his way into power on the slogan of ‘dis’pline’, it was nothing short of impudent.
Shall we revisit the tragicomic series of trials that landed several politicians several lifetimes in prison? Recall, if you please, the ‘judicial’ processes undergone by the septuagenarian Chief Adekunle Ajasin. He was arraigned and tried before Buhari’s punitive tribunal but acquitted. Dissatisfied, Buhari ordered his re-trial. Again, the Tribunal could not find this man guilty of a single crime, so once again he was returned for trial, only to be acquitted of all charges of corruption or abuse of office. Was Chief Ajasin thereby released? No! He was ordered detained indefinitely, simply for the crime of winning an election and refusing to knuckle under Shagari’s reign of terror.
The conduct of the Buhari regime after his coup was not merely one of double, triple, multiple standards but a cynical travesty of justice. Audu Ogbeh, currently chairman of the Action Congress was one of the few figures of rectitude within the NPN. Just as he has done in recent times with the PDP, he played the role of an internal critic and reformer, warning, dissenting, and setting an example of probity within his ministry. For that crime he spent months in unjust incarceration. Guilty by association? Well, if that was the motivating yardstick of the administration of the Buhari justice, then it was most selectively applied. The utmost severity of the Buhari-Idiagbon justice was especially reserved either for the opposition in general, or for those within the ruling party who had showed the sheerest sense of responsibility and patriotism.
Shall I remind this nation of Buhari’s deliberate humiliating treatment of the Emir of Kano and the Oni of Ife over their visit to the state of Israel? I hold no brief for traditional rulers and their relationship with governments, but insist on regarding them as entitled to all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of any Nigerian citizen. This royal duo went to Israel on their private steam and private business. Simply because the Buhari regime was pursuing some antagonistic foreign policy towards Israel, a policy of which these traditional rulers were not a part, they were subjected on their return to a treatment that could only be described as a head masterly chastisement of errant pupils. Since when, may one ask, did a free citizen of the Nigerian nation require the permission of a head of state to visit a foreign nation that was willing to offer that tourist a visa.?
One is only too aware that some Nigerians love to point to Buhari’s agenda of discipline as the shining jewel in his scrap-iron crown. To inculcate discipline however, one must lead by example, obeying laws set down as guides to public probity. Example speaks louder than declarations, and rulers cannot exempt themselves from the disciplinary strictures imposed on the overall polity, especially on any issue that seeks to establish a policy for public well-being. The story of the thirty something suitcases – it would appear that they were even closer to fifty – found unavoidable mention in my recent memoirs, YOU MUST SET FORTH AT DOWN, written long before Buhari became spoken of as a credible candidate. For the exercise of a changeover of the national currency, the Nigerian borders – air, sea and land – had been shut tight. Nothing was supposed to move in or out, not even cattle egrets.
Yet a prominent camel was allowed through that needle’s eye. Not only did Buhari dispatch his aide-de-camp, Jokolo – later to become an emir – to facilitate the entry of those cases, he ordered the redeployment – as I later discovered – of the Customs Officer who stood firmly against the entry of the contravening baggage. That officer, the incumbent Vice-president is now a rival candidate to Buhari, but has somehow, in the meantime, earned a reputation that totally contradicts his conduct at the time. Wherever the truth lies, it does not redound to the credibility of the dictator of that time, General Buhari whose word was law, but whose allegiances were clearly negotiable.
The Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, on Tuesday disclosed that he is a cancer survivor.
He disclosed that he battled with cancer and survived only after receiving vigorous medications.
Mr. Soyinka spoke during a press conference at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
He said the disease was first diagnosed December 2013 and thanks to the early detection and compliance with medications, which he completed on October 28, he was free.
He noted that the diseases was not a death sentence.
“For me, this is not a decision which I like but I felt I have all obligation being a member of African Cancer Center and also having even donated a performance during the festival, fund raising for cancer, I am under obligation to make it known and to also demystify cancer,” he said.
“Many people feel it is a death sentence. Family feel it; friends, colleagues, they begin to look at you as if you are a ghost once there is rumour you have cancer. No, cancer is not a death sentence, it is curable, I have undergone the treatment and I am able to tell you that I even have a model, that’s my certificate.”
He said he had a good reason for getting personal about it as a few years ago he was invited to become a board member of the Africa Cancer Center and even delivered the inaugural lecture, Cancers, Lifestyles.
“It never occurred to me to test myself because men have their separate test like women,” he said. “And I have heard people who lost very dear ones, closed ones. They just told me, ‘Prof, we hope you’re having your own?’ And I told them I had one 10 years ago and he said, “No, no, do it regularly.” And by accident in December last year, I discovered that I had cancer.”
Mr. Soyinka said he was interested in using himself to encourage others to take whatever test available to them but more importantly to encourage those in charge of health matters to take seriously the cancer menace.
“The important thing is that I am convinced that we have enough funds in this nation to build cancer centres, including research that this nation require,” he said. “It is very capital intensive, some of it, but there are many ways and treatments for cancer just like there are many kinds of cancer. Even diet forms an important part. Diet is critical.”
Mr. Soyinka told PREMIUM TIMES that when he was first diagnosed he considered the disease a nuisance.
“I just felt that it was a nuisance,” he said. “There were a lot of things I wanted to do and it was disrupting my normal existence. I just felt I should start re-adjusting. I just saw it another challenge in life.”
Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, has compared the current situation in the country to living under a cloud of shame, embarrassment and feeling of dereliction, casted by insurgency that was allowed to thrive because of the incompetence of the government and lack of genuine leadership.
SOYINKA
Soyinka spoke at the 2014 Foundation Day Anniversary and Convocation Ceremonies of the University of Ibadan, where he was honoured with doctor of letters. Others who also received various honorary awards at the ceremony were Emeritus Professor Olufemi Ogunlesi, who also became the oldest person to receive honorary award of the institution, and owner of Globacom Limited, Mike Adenuga. Others are Prof Tekena Tamuno and Chief Oluwole Olanipekun. President Goodluck Jonathan was represented at the event by the Minister of Education, Ibrahim Shekarau.
Soyinka, who was described by the institution as the courageous voice for human rights, said although the gathering was meant to celebrate success, it would be difficult to cast aside the plight of children who were sent to school in Chibok but never returned.
He said, “This is a festive occasion but we are all sitting under a heavy cloud. We are sitting under a cloud of heavy embarrassment, shame of the feeling of dereliction, sullen responsibility towards children. We are sitting under a cloud of impotence, of a calamity that was not without notice, and whose myriad causes is quite disenable. We are here because of education because we will never stop learning till death. This cloud is made up of a sense of humiliation. We sent our children on an errand and they did not return. The errand is what we are celebrating today. The errand was to prepare the children for today but they never came back, that is what we cannot allow ourselves to forget.”
The celebrated playwright said the gradual disappearance of the University of Maiduguri because of the activities of a set of people who flourished on hate, intimidation and intolerance called for reflection. He also said that Nigerian government was guilty of the failure to protect its children and build a safe nation for all.
“We are familiar with what is going on so I have decided that there is nothing new in what I am going to say. In Port Harcourt where I made a speech at the University of Science and Technology three years ago, I asked deliberately, ‘where is the University of Maiduguri today?’ In the US back in 1957 at the time of racism, the president of that nation federalised the National Guard and ordered it to protect a young girl.
“Do we send children to school to have their hands tied and their throat slit? Yet, we have leadership that is asking the terrorist to come to the table and negotiate with it while children were being killed and taken away in Chibok. What crime did they commit? This is not what our children deserve. It begins with the failure to respond as the US president did to protect the little girl. What is the difference between Nigeria’s Boko Haram and American night and day riders of hate and destruction? Both thrive on hate, intimidation and inculcation of fear, intolerance and terror. This is what is happening to our institutions especially in the northern part of our country,” Soyinka added.
In his response, Shekarau said that FG was taking note of the achievement of UI and its various developmemntal projects, promising that they would be completed in a year, adding that the state of education determines the future of a nation.
The militant Islamist sect, Boko Haram, gives out abducted young girls and women to its members as wives, the 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report, has stated.
It said that through forced marriages, the women and girls are subjected to sex slavery, domestic servitude and forced labour.
The report, which covered 2013, noted that the sect recruited children as foot soldiers, was obtained from the United States Department of State on Tuesday. The report was posted on www.state.gov on June 20.
“International observers had reported in 2013 that the terrorist group, Boko Haram, recruited and used child soldiers as young as 12-years-old, as well as abducted women and girls some of whom were subjected to domestic servitude, forced labour, and sex slavery through forced marriages to its militants,” a part of the report read.
It observed that the Federal Government had yet to fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking.
But the report noted that the government was making significant efforts to do so by increasing anti-trafficking prosecutions and convictions.
It also observed that the government was providing extensive specialised anti-trafficking training to officials from relevant ministries and agencies.
It said the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and Other -Related Matters had increased protection efforts by developing a formal referral mechanism for victims’ protection.
The agency, according to the report, is also increasing the capacity of its shelters and identifying and providing services to a larger number of victims.
A part of the report read, “Despite these efforts, the government has yet to pass draft legislation that would restrict the ability of judges to offer fines in lieu of prison time during sentencing and, with the exception of receiving training from NAPTIP, the Ministry of Labour did not make any new efforts to address labour trafficking during the reporting period.
“Additionally, despite the growing number of Nigerian trafficking victims identified abroad, the government has yet to implement formal procedures for the return and reintegration of Nigerian victims; consequently, many victims are not afforded adequate care upon their return to Nigeria.”
It noted that this was of particular concern, as some European countries deny Nigerian victims’ asylum and access to European victim programmes .
The report also observed that the provisions of the 2003 Trafficking in Persons Law Enforcement and Administration Act, ensured that identified trafficking victims were not penalised for unlawful acts committed as a result of being trafficked.
The TIPR said officials encouraged victims to assist in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking cases.
It said that NAPTIP reported that 32 victims served as witnesses or gave evidence during trial in the reporting period.
The report added that all victims were eligible to receive funds from the victims’ trust fund financed primarily through confiscated assets of convicted traffickers.
It said that during the reporting period (2013), $20,000 was disbursed among 47 victims for various purposes ranging from vocational training to tuition.
The government, it noted, provided a limited legal alternative—short term residency that could not be extended to the removal of foreign victims to countries where they might face hardship or retribution.
The report described Nigeria as a source, transit and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labour and sex,.
It noted that trafficked victims were recruited from rural and, to a lesser extent, urban areas within the country.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has said that it has yet to confirm the reported kidnap of 60 women in the Chibok and Damboa Local Government Areas of Borno State.
The Chairman of the National Information Centre, Mr. Mike Omeri, who stated this in an a telephone interview with The PUNCH in Abuja on Tuesday, also commented on a statement credited to a lawyer close to Boko Haram, Hajia Aisha Wakil.
He said that government could not act on claims in the media.
Wakil had on Al-Jazeera said on Monday that the sect was demanding amnesty and rehabilitation.
She had said, “They want to be given amnesty, rehabilitated and allowed to come back home and move freely.
I told them not to hold the girls as ransom and to give me the sick ones-and that was where we ended. The girls are a growing burden to them.”
Reacting to the statement, Omeri said that he was not aware that Boko Haram had appointed Wakil as its spokesperson.
He said, “I have not heard it (the interview on Al-Jazerra). Secondly, the lady knows where to present the views of Boko Haram. If she has been appointed by Boko Haram, we would have known.
“Did you hear them say they have appointed her as their spokesperson? Boko Haram has not told us specifically who they have appointed. We cannot act on spurious claims on pages of newspapers or on Al-Jazeera.”
On the abduction of 60 women in Borno on Monday, he said he had not confirmed the kidnap.
He stated, “Everybody I checked with said he heard from someone.
Nobody has confirmed the abduction of 60 women including people from Damboa. I have spoken to quite a number of people; I have asked from the media that reported it. They said they heard from somebody.
“I checked from the local government Information officer.
‘‘He said that he heard from somebody.
“For me, up till now, I have not confirmed.
‘‘Everybody I spoke with said he heard from somebody, including the sources the newspapers have quoted.”
Asked whether it was convenient to say that the government had not confirmed the kidnap of the women, he said, “Yes, because all the sources claimed they heard from somebody and that somebody is not identified by anybody.”
The state Governor, Kashim Shettima has however directed the chairmen of the Damboa LGA chairman and stakeholders to “make very urgent but accurate enquiries from communities and report to him as soon as they can even as security agencies take appropriate actions.”
Shettima, who expressed “serious concerns about the reported abduction, said in a statement on Tuesday by his Special Adviser on Communication, Isa Gusau, that information concerning the issue required careful enquiry.
The statement read in part, “The governor… calls for patience at all times so that collectively, the media and government can in giving out information, be sure of exactly what happened, how it happened, when and who is or are involved.’’
