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
