Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, says President
Goodluck Jonathan has confided in him that if
the outcome of the presidential election does
not end in his favour, he would retire to his
hometown of Otuoke in Bayelsa state.
Speaking on Sunday during an interview with
British Newspaper, The Guardian, Soyinka said
Jonathan made the promise during a recent
meeting between both of them.
“Recently, I was invited by the president to
discuss various issues,” he said.
“We even discussed life after power, whenever
that takes place. It was difficult for me to
decide from his side how readily he might
accept defeat but he absolutely swore that if he
lost he was going back to his Otuoke village.
“If I take him literally, I think he will accept the
result, but I’ve learnt never to trust any
politician from here to there, even if they’re just
coming out of communion. So I really don’t
know.”
Describing the 2015 election as one of the
worst in the history of the country, the revered
scholar said while the campaign lasted, a lot of
money was devoted to frivolities.
“This has been one of the most vicious,
unprincipled, vulgar and violent election
exercises I have ever witnessed,” he said.
“Most expensive, most prodigal, wasteful,
senseless, I mean really insensitive in terms of
what people live on in this country.
“This was the real naira-dollar extravaganza,
spent on just subverting, shall we say, the
natural choices of people. Just money instead
of argument, instead of position statements.
“And of course the sponsoring of violence in
various places, in addition to this festive
atmosphere in which every corner, every pillar,
every electric pole is adorned with one
candidate or the other, many of them in poses
which remind one of Nollywood.
“I get a feeling sometimes that some of these
candidates were just locked in their wardrobes
and they were told: ‘Just take selfies in there
and don’t come out until you’ve finished the
entire wardrobe.’ All kinds of postures. Just
ridiculous. It has been an embarrassing
exercise in terms of electioneering.”
Revealing that he was the one who drew the
attention of Jonathan to a current diplomatic
spat between Nigeria and Morocco, Soyinka
said the president was surrounded by those
who do not mean well for him.
Morrocco’s ministry of foreign affairs had
revealed that its monarch turned down a
request of having a phone conversation with
Jonathan.
Apparently embarrassed by the disclosure, the
Nigerian government turned around to say both
leaders had a conversation, an allegation which
Morocco subsequently denied.
The issue eventually resulted to the recall of
the Moroccan ambassador in Nigeria.
However, Soyinka expressed shock that the
president’s aides kept him in the dark over
such crucial development.
“President Jonathan is in a cage. He didn’t
strike me as being aware of the forces which
surround him,” he said.
“Here is a situation where a president did not
even know that a foreign country, a friendly
country, had withdrawn its ambassador from
Nigeria.
“I was the one who told him. He jumped up as if
his seat was on fire. I couldn’t believe it … He
was not aware that for about five days the
media had been absolutely hysterical with this
embarrassing situation between the two. It was
that very night that he made a public statement
about it for the first time.
“So when I say that there is a force around, I
know what I’m talking about. There is a very
sinister force in control and it is that sinister
cabal which is responsible for caging him in
and showing him what they think he should
know about and keeping away from him things
which are not in their interest, and this for me
is the most dangerous situation that any nation
can be in.”
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