By Ugochimereze Chinedu Asuzu
It was Plato, the Greek Sage, who once prophetically proclaimed that: “We can forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
This quote copiously captures the essence of the narrative concerning our most distinguished Kongi, and the fact that it’s indeed a tragedy the current trajectory of his views on issues, especially as regards the person of Mr Peter Obi and his political aspiration in the Nigerian project. The revered Professor has never hidden his disdain for Obi’s political quest to offer himself to serve at the highest level of leadership in Nigeria, and one may wont to ask, why?
In his exact words used in the denouement of the scathing remarks on Obi’s lack of control of his followers, and the fact that it portrays inability to govern, Prof. Wole Soyinka was quoted thus: “I hope for the sake of the nation that he doesn’t express interest in the next election because for me as a leader, if there was any proof that he was unfit to lead that country, it’s in the conduct which he encouraged among his followers,” Now, Soyinka’s reason for picking on Peter as unfit for the job of President was merely rooted on his inability to control his supporters (according to him), not on the assessment of Peter’s personal character, track records, competence or ability, but just on what I will refer to as baseless innuendos. Do you still wonder why he supports whom he supports?
His recent somewhat unguarded utterances against Peter Obi within the context of the electioneering period that drew the ire of the youths against him has not subsided before yet again in a recent interview he launched out at Obi, unprovoked, hiding under the guise that Peter Obi’s handling of the backlash of his utterances against Obi that led the youths’ responses to him proves Obi incapable of leading the country.
To put this into perspective, our respect Literary Icon this is a pioneers of a confraternity in his university days. Pirates Confraternity today represents everything you can imagine. Interestingly, Professor, today, is no longer in control of his creation. The Nigerian political Maradona, and then Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida, dribbled his way through Prof. following the usual loud mouthed criticism of the Babangida administration, by handing over the Federal Road Safety Corps to Prof. to oversee. The result was not fantastic. The man who knows much book work and little practical knowledge no has fort in talking down a two terms governor of a state, who governed meritoriously without blemish and is managing his own personal businesses in a top notch manner. It’s clear to everyone today that Prof. Wole Soyinka is obsessed with the clean record of both businesses, governance and personal life of Mr Peter Obi, whose clean records, obviously upsets him. One will boldly draw this conclusion taking into cognizance the nature of acquaintances he keeps: persons with baggages of corruption, drugs and drug related issues, questionable credentials and none at all et al. As such, reasonable and clear minded Nigerians do not expect any less from him than scorn, derision and outright hate against the one who seems to have conquered on the areas they’re yet struggling with and that is INTEGRITY!
These uncoordinated utterances of Prof. Wole Soyinka is becoming increasingly unpopular with people who make good use of their brains, and really left much to be desired of the Nobel laureate, that someone of his caliber would allow primordial sentiments to becloud his sense of objectivity to the point of transferring aggressions unabashedly is becoming a thing of worries, to both his friends and foes alike, because he’s revered no doubt and highly respected Nigerian, more so an elder statesman that ought to weigh his words carefully before uttering them.
As our people of the Igbo ethnicity would say: “Okenye mimia onu akwa umaazi ebegburu onweha” (once the elder makes the move to cry the children rolls on the ground crying), that’s suggestive of the fact that Prof. ought always to weigh his words carefully before dishing them out and not to be controlled by any form of bottled angers in public speech.
Agreed we sure do have tremendous respect for the person of our revered Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, but we can’t keep validating his vaux pas and double speech in recent times on issues bothering on the governance of Nigeria. This was a man who during the days of Jonathan in office made a lot of scathing remarks against his person and that of his wife as well. One can’t even reproduce those denigrating terms he used then on the then President and his wife, not minding their positions then and they took same with equanimity. The same Soyinka seems very unable to stomach the criticism of his person by the youths and so bottled the anger in him waiting to unleash same on Peter who did him absolutely nothing. Who does that?
No one is begrudging him over his support for anyone, but making it seem like he has the unfettered entitlement or unbridled monopoly to denigrate anyone else because he believes he’s on the rooftop and every other is scampering for safety beneath him is more like arrogating to himself what he truly is not, and he should be told to take it easy.
Though I wouldn’t know if some of what we are seeing of late in him is borne out of his old age, could it be senility or simply enthroned bigotry?
I believe respect is reciprocal, hence it’s a give and take situation, and respect for elders is highly advocated but not where the elder has a foreclosed thought pattern that respect should be a one way traffic. This cannot be so. Respect, is a give and take, as such shouldn’t in any way become a trap for the elderly to use in caging the youths or railroading them into subjective innuendos.
Quite recently, Wole Soyinka was interviewed and part of what formed his opinion was about Peter Obi’s ineligibility to contest the 2027 election. That what should or shouldn’t happen in 2027 being the focal point of Wole Soyinka in the Nigeria of today beats the imagination of any right thinking Nigerian, more so his awkward fixation on Peter Obi draws the attention of all the initiates to want to probe the criteria upon which he arrived at his obviously jaundiced conclusion? I find it difficult to believe he’s that paranoid to the point of harbouring such heinous and utterly pathological hatred on Peter Obi who from all indications harbours no ill-feelings towards him, at least none whatsoever that I have read anywhere.
Is he one of these ethnic bigots by any chance? Could he be contesting with Peter Obi for the presidency of Nigeria in 2027 that’s he’s this disturbed and hellbent on embarking on early de-marketing strategies to pour aspersions on the integrity of Peter Obi earlier than required? I mean what’s the haste about to malign Peter Obi and de-market him beforehand? What’s the personal interest of Prof in this project?
Nigeria is presently faced with the multifaceted sufferings, multidimensional poverty and excruciating pains of paucity of funds, droughts of opportunities, hunger, starvation, high costs of goods and services, inflation, currency devaluation and other demeaning situational imbalances hanging on the neck of the Nigerian people, and all these didn’t catch the attention of the Nobel laureate, rather who becomes what in 2027 is his primary, secondary and tertiary concerns?
Something is just not adding up at all. Who could our great Kongi be holding briefs for? And already setting up his arsenals so early in the day for it, without recourse to time and season? The Man Indeed Died!
Disclaimer
As a policy JOURNALIST101 does not endorse or oppose any opinion expressed by a User or Content provided by a User, Contributor, or another independent party. Opinion pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of JOURNALIST101.
