Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka,
has expressed shock at the
contents of former President
Olusegun Obasanjo’s controversial
autobiography titled, My Watch.
Soyinka, in a piece titled, ‘Watch
And Pray, Watch And Prey’,
described Obasanjo as an expert in
telling lies and a shameless man.
Soyinka is one of the personalities
the former President slammed in
the three-volume controversial
book which an Abuja court ordered
security agencies to confiscate
wherever it is being sold.
He described the literary icon as a
misfit, a better wine connoisseur
and a guinea fowl hunter in the
book.
“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, ”
Obasanjo wrote.
But, Soyinka who, by the tone of his
piece did not find Obasanjo
comment funny, said, “I despise
that species of humanity whose
stock-in-trade is to concoct lies
simply to score a point, win an
argument, puff up his or her own
ego, denigrate or attempt to
destroy a fellow being.
“However, even within such
deplorable species, a special pit of
universal opprobrium is surely
reserved for those who even lack
the courage of their own lies, but
must foist them on others.”
He also took a swipe at the former
President for openly condemning
his former Special Adviser, Mr. Akin
Osuntokun, who is “young enough
to be his son.”
The playwright said, “For now, let
me single out just one of the most
glaring instances of this man’s
compulsive career of lying, one
sample that the media can readily
check upon and use as a touchstone
– if they do need one – in assessing
our author’s multifaceted claims
and commentaries on people and
events.
“I refer here to the grotesque and
personally insulting statement that
he has attributed to me for some
inscrutable but obviously
diversionary reasons.
“In the process, this past Master of
Mendacity brazenly implicates an
innocent young man, Akin
Osuntokun, who once served him
as a special adviser. Instead of
conferring dignity on a direct
rebuttal of an ignoble fabrication, I
shall simply make a personal, all-
embracing attestation:
“When an old man stuffs a lie into
the throat of an age-mate of his
own children – omo inu e! – we can
only pity an irredeemable
egomaniac whose dotage is
headed for twilight disgrace.”
The literary icon also revisited the
controversial Obasanjo
Presidential library, saying it was
acquired through ‘executive
extortionism’ just as President
Goodluck Jonathan recently got
over N21bn at a dinner/fund-raiser
last Saturday.
He noted that both Jonathan and
Obasanjo were leaders known for
impunity.
Soyinka said, “That obscene
proceeding (Obasanjo’s Library
Fund-raising) has certainly set a
competitive precedent for
impunity in President Jonathan’s
recent fund-raising shindig,
editorialised in The PUNCH (Dec. 23,
2014) as Impunity Taken too Far.
“So much for the latest from that
direction – we mustn’t allow
Handing-Over notes between
presidents to distract us for too
long.”
He said Obasanjo had no right to
take the moral high ground.
Soyinka added that Obasanjo
loved to call on the name of God
but his actions implied that he
probably did not believe in God’s
existence.
He urged Nigerians to be careful
about taking heed to the advice of
Obasanjo as the former President
was very deceptive.
Soyinka wrote, “In this season of
goodwill, we owe a duty to our
immediate and distant neighbours:
CAVEAT EMPTOR! Let all beware, who
try to buy a Rolex from this
indefatigable watch peddler,” he
said.
“Our author invokes God tirelessly,
without provocation, without
necessity and without justification,
perhaps pre-emptively, but does
he really believe in such an entity?
Does our home-bred Double-O-
Seven believe in anything outside
his own Omnipotence?
“Could he possibly have mistaken
the Christian exhortation – ‘Watch
and Pray’ for his private inclination
to “Watch and Prey?”
He maintained that Obasanjo’s
book was written in a deceitful
manner such that he took credit for
the good deeds of others and then
blamed others for his own failure.
“This is a seasoned predator on
others’ achievements – he preys on
their names, their characters, their
motivations, their true lives, preys
on gossip and preys on facts, preys
on contributions to collective
undertakings…..even preys on their
identities, substituting his own
where possible,” Soyinka said.
Soyinka compared Obasanjo to a
creature in Igbo Olodumare, a
novel written by the late Daniel
Fagunwa.
Although he did not mention
Obasanjo’s name while making
comparisons, he said only one man
could fit into that description.
He said, “The seventh (creature) is
not among those who set out to
improve the world but rather to
cause distress to its inhabitants. It
was through manipulations that he
attained a high position. Having
achieved this however, he
constantly blocked the progress of
those behind him, this being a
most deplorable act in the eyes of
God, and rank behaviour in the
judgment of the dwellers of
heaven – that anyone who has
enjoyed upliftment in life should
seek to be an obstacle for those
who follow him.
“This man forgot the beings of
earth, forgot the beings of heaven,
in turn, he forgot the presence of
God. The worst kind of behaviour
agitated his hands – greed
occupied the centre of his heart,
and he was a creature that walked
in darkness.
“This man wallowed in bribery, he
was chairman of the circle of
scheming, head of the gang of
double-dealing, field-marshal of
those who crept about in the dark
of night. With his mouth, he ruined
the work of others, while he used a
big potsherd to cover the good
works of some, that others might
not see their attainments.
“He nosed around for secrets that
would entrap his companions, and
blew them up into monumental
crimes in the eyes of the world. He
who turns the world upside down,
places the deceitful on the throne,
casts the truthful down – because
such is a being of base earth, he
will never stand as equal among
the uplifted.”
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
