John Okiyi Kalu wrote: Ukwu jie Agu (When a lions leg is broken) I dont expect Prof Soyinka to respond to Sadiq Abacha. Doing so will belittle him further. I also think the young man delivered a good enough response. Having long reviewed the Abacha years, I feel strongly that his crime, in Nigerias political context, was dying in office and being succeeded by 2 men he almost killed or sacked. One of them is extremely vengeful even towards his own blood. Otherwise, Abacha is not worse than others that led this country in the past 53+ years. If others were rewarded for (mis)ruling Nigeria then Abacha deserves same reward. Prof Soyinka, in my view, should have criticized the whole award and awardees rather than isolate Abacha for populist abuse. Unless of course Prof Soyinka is saying all the past leaders did well except Abacha. If that is his point, I join Sidiq Abacha in saying he was wrong. I remain resolutely against the centenary awards because of the awards to the colonial masters and their black successors who subjected our forebears to all manner of indignities. Celebration of independence anniversary should suffice while efforts should be stepped up to bring Luggard and his sponsors to justice for everything they stole from us and for enslavement and forced labour without pay. Prof should have picked on that theme since he ostensibly founded Pyrates confraternity to confront same colonialists. There is possibly no Nigerian alive as detribalized as Prof Soyinka. The closest I know should be Ex-President Ibrahim Babangida. Soyinka is an icon in the East, West and North. He spent his early days fighting for Nigeria and every Nigerian. He was even jailed because he insisted that the Biafra war was an unjust war. Such is the essential Soyinka that we all know and love. Anything that detracts from this essential Soyinka is a disservice to all of us. More than to the man. Unfortunately, his views lately appears to be more and more stained by politics, especially opposition politics. His intervention in Rivers political crisis was less than Soyinkaic as many of us never expected him to take sides but rather use his influence to reconcile the combatants. Injecting himself into the crisis and even going as far as insulting the Presidents wife (he called her shepopothamus) was not Nobel-like. He assumed the posture of an opposition politician in that crisis and ever since then, Prof now speaks more for the opposition. It is possibly the fact of this mindset that made him pick on the Abacha theme as against the rubbish celebration of colonial mentality hosted by Nigerian government. Abacha was too cheap a target for one of Africas best brains and he didnt do Africa a favour by failing to pick on the theme of reward for colonization of Africa as his basis for rejecting the centenary award. The Abacha theme only serves the opposition (mostly ACN elements in APC) but failed to deliver on pan Africanism. His position will please one of his later day political sons who recently claimed that Jonathans govt is worse than Abachas and it aligns with a recurrent theme message of opposition APC that recently asked President Jonathan not to take Nigeria back to Abacha years. Prof Soyinka picking on that theme in neglect of the wider but non-partisan anti-colonialism theme is surely a disservice to African liberation struggles. I still wonder how President Mugabe will feel watching the British Ambassador mount the podium to collect reward-Award for colonizing Nigeria. Steve Biko and Mau Mau fighters must have turned in their graves. Yet my Prof was more interested in just one of several misrulers of Nigeria. A list that includes his friends and family. And now small boys like Sadiq Abacha are taking him up and looking like the real nobel laureate while the laureate is looking and sounding like Doyin Okupe. Not good enough Prof. But you are still one of our best.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 02:36:06 +0000
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