Prof. Wole Soyinka, made it clear that he has no bit of
respect for former President Obasanjo, who he
described as an indescribable liar.
Soyinka talked about the former president on
Friday night when he responded 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 blows
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.”
Punch
