Every Nigerian and foreigner is aware of Wole Soyinka’s clash with the influential Obedient movement after he labeled them as fascists in an April Channels TV interview.
‘The saddest and most frustrating thing about a special breed of Nigerians is their unconscionable resort to calumny when their ox is gored. Then, watch them wallow in slander, distortion, vilification and allied toxic weapons in their narration of, or recourse to, historical references…Those who have swallowed garbage, yet refuse to spit it out, even after the emetic of facts, are free to continue to chew the cud of ignorance.’
Wole Soyinka, The NEWS magazine, July 21 2014. pp. 19 and 20.
The above quotes from the Kongi form a solid take off point for this short essay. Every Nigerian and foreigner knows that Wole Soyinka became an enemy of the massive Obedient movement when he described them as fascists in a Channels TV interview back in April. This was in response to the Channels TV interview with Labour Party’s running mate, Senator Datti Baba Ahmed, in which he called upon the Chief Justice, Olukayode Ariwoola, not to swear in Tinubu as president because the latter did not meet constitutional requirements for the job, hence there was no president-elect. Soyinka’s expressed dissatisfaction with the statement aroused millions of supporters of Peter Obi/Datti Ahmed, the hugely popular Labour Party presidential and VP candidates, who still feel INEC’s declaration of their candidates as third in the February presidential election was dishonest, to put it mildly.
Ever since he described the mostly youthful Obidient movement in unflattering terms following their response to his engagement with Datti’s interview, it has been a heated exchange on both sides. Anything Soyinka says about the February elections is dressed up by the other side as tribal support for Tinubu and the APC; a renunciation of all the principles the Kongi stood for; outright intellectual fraud on his part; malignant hate for the Igbo; footwork brought upon by the greasing of an itching palm; and onrushing senility due to old age. The list of calumnies Soyinka has received and still receives from this brood of internet heroes is endless. Some have dared gone off the social media, thinking that their actions will drive home their animosity against Soyinka to the world. Hence our own DJ Cuppy went viral with swaggering posts on how she ‘roasted’ Soyinka in a book panel discussion. But even as netizens foamed at the mouth and rejoiced that the cerebral deejay had machine-gunned the literary tyrant, they did not know or conveniently forgot that back in 2013, DJ Cuppy released her remake of Wole Soyinka’s hit song ‘Etike Revo Wetin’ as her debut single. Yes, the song which was translated as ‘I love my country’ by Cuppy was written by her archenemy and initially sang by Tunji Oyelana and was a success in Nigeria in the 1980s.
This aside on the leading female poster girl of the End SARS and Obidient movements is not the main point of this essay. Suffice it to say that in the eyes of many of them, a clearly radical, anti Establishment Wole Soyinka taking a seemingly pro Establishment stance on an election as critical as that of February 25 is betrayal of the highest order. Sifting through their searing online and print criticisms of the Kongi, I perceived a deep sense of disappointment at how this seemingly impregnable bastion of democratic virtue and principle; a fort that withstood the barrages from military dictators within and outside Nigeria; a citadel that dazzled despots with its solid beacons of searchlights on their evils and empowered the people in their struggles for a just society with its colossal towers of erudition and moral superiority would seemingly crumble before a pseudo democratic dispensation. And as we all know, the Professor is not one to hide his views. But is this anger by the teeming youths who in a convoluted way are his descendants justified? By the way, my calling the Obidients his descendants is deliberate. If you want to know, carefully compare Soyinka’s activities in the political space from 1960 to 1967 with what the Obidients have been up to since the campaigns for the February elections, even during the INEC registration exercises.
But do these youths have a valid argument against Soyinka? First, there is no doubt about the power of the Nobel Laureate’s voice. But at the end of the day it is just one voice. It is unrealistic assuming that one voice speaks for an entity like our perfidious political class and that embarrassment called INEC. Agreed, Soyinka’s stance that Labour Party came third and that its angry followers are unwitting tools in the hands of faceless groups seeking a return of the dark nights of military rule is provocative, to say the least. But viewed in the light of the recent tide of coups in this part of the world, is it not food for some thought? Are there no groups ready to seize upon the anger in the land to wreck havoc? It is true quite a few people, embittered by APC’s victory at the election and the tribunal, have called for a coup. Many are our virulently democratic young folk. The implications are ominous, to say the least. But it brings forth this question: do you pull down the entire house if you cannot get your way?
Having said all this, while we await the Supreme Court to rule on appeals filed by Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar against Tinubu’s victory at the presidential tribunal, the Chicago University certificate drama has taken over our national screen in glorious Technicolor. Let me make it clear that this drama, irrespective how it eventually ends, is a great slur on Nigeria and Nigerians. It leaves a lot on our national psyche and one keeps wondering how we sank so low as a country. You can call Tinubu’s political opponents all the names you like but the facts are these: since 1999, when he assumed governorship of Lagos state, the president’s academic records, indeed, his entire biography, has been controversial. Going through Dele Momodu’s essay ‘The truth Tinubu must be told’ I concluded that the so-called strategist goofed big-time by not taking ample advantage of his long vacation from formal political arena to put things right. Please read that article to gain unbiased insights.
Yet some groups have called upon the Nobel Laureate to speak on the Tinubu certificate mess. Perhaps the most prominent is the call by the Neo Africana Centre. The Centre clearly described Soyinka as an interested party in the election Tinubu supposedly won. In the words of Jenkins Udu, the Centre’s Director: ‘we have observed with a measured degree of disquiet the embarrassing tales around President Bola Tinubu’s claim of attending and obtaining a certificate from Chicago State University in the United States of America. Most curious about this is Tinubu’s application to the university and the court that his academic records should not be released. This move by the president to shield his academic records from the past is suspicious and embarrassing. It leaves us asking if there is anything he is hiding from the public. The controversy is, to say the least, messy…. The opaqueness of his (Tinubu)’s records is one of the grounds on which his election as president is being challenged in court.’
The Centre called for Soyinka’s intervention on the following grounds:
His famous dictum (from his book ‘The Man Died’) that the man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny applies in this situation because nothing could be more tyrannical than imposing falsehood such as false educational claims on the people and compelling them to accept them.
Soyinka’s record as a stickler for transparency and probity in public office demands he leaves disinterest and take a stand on Tinubu’s shady background.
To the best of my knowledge the Kongi has said nothing yet on the matter. Should he? If he does not, his traducers will not be surprised. In their book he has sold out to the Establishment; he supported both Buhari and Tinubu, faces of a dispensation that has brought Nigeria to her knees. He dare not speak against a candidate whose victory he backs. But matters may not be so clear cut. Note, the Kongi needs nobody’s advocacy, including mine, but have his traducers considered these points:
None of his public utterances on the elections explicitly declared Tinubu won or outright support for him or his party. I stand to be corrected.
His critique of the Obidients never translated to slurs against Peter Obi.
He did not vote during the presidential election.
Yes, he and Tinubu go a long way back to the prodemocracy struggle against Abacha but does the record show they hobnobbed in the Jagban’s days in power in Lagos? Again, I stand to be corrected.
If he was such a villain, why did Obi visit the Prof?
The Kongi is mortal so it is possible he may be wrong. But what is the justification for one Professor James Gibbs online dispute that Soyinka did not graduate with a first-class degree from Leeds University? Who is this James Gibbs? In his response Soyinka described the claim in these words: ‘the contents of that script are attributed, as before, to the scholastic industry of a Bristol schoolteacher.’ Who is this Bristol school teacher with an ax to grind? Soyinka’s activities in the last forty or more years have earned him enemies in both political and literary spaces. This is understandable.
Is this James Gibbs the same Professor James Gibbs, who along with the famous Professor Bernth Lindfors edited the book ‘Research on Wole Soyinka?’ The Professor is an avid scholar of Soyinka and his works and has written extensively about him over the years. The sum total of the accusation against Soyinka appears to be that he did not make a first-class at Leeds, not that he did not attend the university or that he parades a fake credential. Interestingly the accusation stems from a 1998 article written by one Joseph Dahip in which he referenced a 1996 report by Professor Gibbs that stated Soyinka did not make a first-class as he claimed. It may be stretching the imagination to attribute the resurrection of the accusation to Obidients or attributing Soyinka’s silence over Tinubu’s certificate scandal to this. But what delights me is the 30 day ultimatum the Kongi has given to his accusers to prove their accusations. It is a carte blanche for any serious accuser to step forward and do the Laureate’s reputation in with facts.
Some of his admirers say he should not have dignified their vitriol with a reply. Yet, even if the Obedient are not responsible for this allegation, social media is abuzz with their caustic remarks about the Nobel Laureate’s integrity. After all he supports an alleged certificate forger so he must be in the same boat, they argue.
The tragedy of the madness of this movement is that it seems to be giving some credence to their antidemocratic credentials. Must everyone back you? Must people be silent because they dare not voice different perspectives, even if wrong? Is that not what you dearly oppose, the stifling of your voice and your vote? Till date my respect and regard for Peter Obi remains sky-high, and I wonder why his tolerance cannot reflect on his followers. Understandably, they yearn for a better society and rail against the Establishment that has done them no good. But they court enemies where bridges should be built. Having said this, the rot in our electoral system will only be ignored to our peril as a nation. Soyinka serves his purpose as a restraining hand on lunacy becoming an attractive option in our quest for national rebirth. Censuring him for his position is as bad as attacking Chimamanda Adichie for openly supporting Peter Obi. Interestingly, both renowned authors once backed the tragedy from Daura: Muhammadu Buhari. Does that tell you anything about the imperfectability of our heroes and heroines, even the most cerebral ones?
Finally, in the 21 July 2014edition of ‘The NEWS’ magazine which was a celebration of Soyinka’s eightieth birthday, on page 20, the interviewers, in engaging with the Nobel Laureate, said he graduated from Leeds with a second-class upper degree and initially sought to pursue a doctorate in Literature but abandoned it for a practical experience in drama and Performance Arts at the Royal Court Theatre in London. Our own W.S., in responding, did not deny his class of degree or correct the journalists.
Henry Chukwuemeka Onyema is a historian and author. In 2020 he published the novella ‘In Love and In War.’ Email: henrykd2009@yahoo.com.
