wole soyinka accused obj of been a liar
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.”
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