In the last two weeks, four respected prominent commentators on national issues have diligently responded to another tissue of nonsense peddled by no other person than Wole Soyinka on the Boko Haram issue.
In the last two weeks, four respected prominent commentators on national issues have diligently responded to another tissue of nonsense peddled by no other person than Wole Soyinka on the Boko Haram issue.
These are Sam Nda-Isaiah, Muhammed Haruna, Mahmud Jega and the ever-articulate Adamu Adamu. Their pieces can be accessed on:
http://dailytrust.com.ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=154378:soyinka-still-in-bo-ro-no-state&catid=6:daily-columns&Itemid=6
http://www.leadership.ng/nga/columns/15421/2012/02/06/wole_soyinka_dead_wrong.html
http://dailytrust.com.ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=153948:he-thinks-he-knows&catid=6:daily-columns&Itemid=6
http://dailytrust.com.ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=154169:time-for-the-sovereign-national-conference&catid=6:daily-columns&Itemid=6
While Sam did try to educate Wole Soyinka on the origin of Boko Haram as he thinks he does not know, Muhammed Haruna challenged him and his ilk on the much touted Sovereign National Conference (SNC). The idea he has been touting for more than a decade now. Mahmud Jega in his usual characteristics humorously punctured what he called the weakness in Soyinka’s theory. For me, it is foolishness of his theory. But the person who really dressed Soyinka in his most befitting robe is Adamu Adamu. He was very articulate in exposing the mindset of this supposedly intellectual. He bared the shallowness of the level of Wole Soyinka’s knowledge on burning national issues, his pride in paganism and his delusion in self-importance.
Adamu Adamu just did exactly what has been my own view of the person of Wole Soyinka. He is an alarmist and unadulterated pagan. But he is not just a pagan, a fanatical one for that matter. Dangerously, adherences of fanaticism are always myopic in the knowledge of the area they claim expertise and Wole Soyinka aptly represents that as far as national issues are concerned.
Having followed his comments for sometimes on burning national subject before I finally abandoned it because they only worth the grammar with which they are spoken, I came to the conclusion that Nigeria is doomed further if this type of person is ever looked upon to proffer solution to any of our national problems. He has never for once offered a solution to any national problem. Instead, he pours Kerosene on a raging fire (with due apology to Mahmud Jega). Whenever he speaks he only deceives his listener with his ability to convert simple English sentence to a complex one. No one usually questions whether there is any common sense in his literary invective perhaps because he won a Noble Prize. But I am too modestly schooled in traditional knowledge to be deceived by grammar or any Noble Prize.
Accepted he won a Nobel Prize on literature. That is all where it ends. Nobel Prize never confers on anybody even a common sense if it is not already innate in such a person. It is neither awarded on the ground of the sense and moral in one’s work, rather it is purely on style. An analogy is the various English exams we take at school. The grader does not look at whether your essay or letter imports any moral lesson; s/he does not care whether your essay is fact or fallacy. What s/he is concerned about is the mechanical accuracy, noun-verb agreement, etc, of your essay. So, that he won a Nobel Prize does not in any way make him a sensible person.
Moreover, If Noble Prize is awarded on the ground of the moral strength of speeches, writings and songs, Soyinka would not have been any match for the likes of Dan Maraya Jos or Ayinde Barrister. Let alone the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti whose communication is passed in most simple English sentence that every Nigerian understands. Even the Ofelele Salawu and Achewuru of the Ebira people fare better than him. In modern Academic circle, he is no match to Prof. Ali Mazrui of Kenya. In fact, he is no near to our own Chinua Achebe whose literary work has much impact on Nigeria students’ writings.
I have not seen the positive effect of this man on our national issue except his divisive posturing. His legacy is the cultism he left behind in our universities, which is nothing but a tool for students of our higher institutions of learning to murder fellow students, lecturers and rape female colleagues. As Adamu Adamu correctly put it, Wole Soyinka thinks he is a person whose view the world is waiting for and thus his words should be an authority. This self-importance has deluded him for so long that he always displays the shallowness of his knowledge at every forum, especially in the international media. He thinks national issue is about speaking English and thus he warps things together in most complex grammar which makes no sense or that is intended for mischief. To me, he is simply an alarmist. It is an accident of history that this fellow is awarded a Noble Prize.
Wole Soyinka is in the mould of Naiwu Osahon, another modern day atheist and petty liar. Looking at these two, one will come to realize that there are also terrorists in paganism. They have so many things in common. They often choose colonial master’s avenue to peddle nonsense about their supposed enemies. They have one enemy in common: Islam and the Muslim. On top of it, they knowingly tell lie and live in self-delusion. Their belief is a mix of atheism and paganism. At one point they behave to show that there is no God, but at some other times they think there are some gods in a remote African forest that control their affairs. They never realize that there is difference in the two beliefs.
Moreover, their shout about democracy is just for the sake of it. The substance of good governance from elected representative is never reflected in their own form of democracy, especially when such elected person comes from a particular religion or region. Soyinka and Osahon’s views about national issues have always been so biased and unreasonable. It is either they are distorting fact or exhibiting superficiality of knowledge of the subject of discourse. It is no wonder that Soyinka does not even know that there is no state in Nigeria called BORONO.
Soyinka talks despicably about military junta because he thinks everyone has forgotten that he served in Ibrahim Babangida’s government. Any man of principle would not serve in that regime. A man who now says he fears no death ran away in the heat of Gen. Sani Abacha’s rein on true democrats and fake ones like Soyinka. This was at a time when people like Abraham Adesanya and Gani Fawehinmi stayed put to fight the regime to a stand-still. While the likes of Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti, Abubakar Rimi and ‘small boy’ Shehu Sani were languishing in jail, others like Alfred Rewane, Kudirat Abiola and Shehu Musa Yaradua paid the ultimate prize for believing in true democracy. All Soyinka could do was to sneak out to the comfort zones of western countries instigating sanctions against Nigeria, a method which anywhere deploys only affects the masses.
In the final analysis, Professorship or Nobel Prize is not in any way equivalent to common sense. It does neither confer any if one does not already have one. My people may have seen the antics of people like Soyinka for them to come up with the saying that the most idiotic people most of the times are those who are too much schooled in this western ideas.
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