Soyinka’s Irresponsible Attack On Ndigbo At Harvard
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| Soyinka |
The Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka was his usual
hypocritical self when he delivered a lecture recently at Harvard University’s
Centre for African and African-American Research, in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
USA where he was booed for accusing the Igbo of sectionalism and ‘insatiable
love of money’ in respect to the just concluded general elections in Nigeria.
Let me digress. Is it not curious that for the past 16 years
that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu had Lagos in his pocket ‘like so many nickels
and diamonds’ and shares it with whomsoever he pleases Professor Soyinka who
claims to be an apostle of good governance has never written about the
corruption that stares him on the face in Lagos as he goes to his Abeokuta
home? Is it not curious that despite the alleged monumental corruption of the
regime of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in Rivers State, Soyinka is one of
his staunchest defenders and in his defence has written many unprintable things
about President Goodluck Jonathan and First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan? Of
course Soyinka will never criticise the rots in Lagos and Port Harcourt and the
like, because he knew where his bread is buttered.
I have to digress to remind us that Soyinka as a social critic
is also a hypocrite who is always selective in his targets just as he choose
the Igbo for denigration and attack in his Harvard lecture.
Let us interrogate the
allegation that Igbos’ political decisions are influenced by money for which he
claimed that Nigerians usually knew for certainty where the Igbo will vote
because they follow ‘their stomach’. Does that mean that it was the Igbos that received all the
billions of naira spent by the PDP and APC in the 2015 elections? That is by
the way.
Another question to ask Soyinka is, how much did his brother
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo pay to the Igbos to vote for him in 1999 when he left
the prison with only N20,000 in his bank account as he (Obasanjo) claimed? Also
how much did Umaru Musa Yar’Adua pay to Ndigbo for them to reject Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar and General Muhammadu Buhari and vote for him in 2007 presidential
election? If money could buy all the Igbo why was Tinubu panicky in Lagos
before the governorship election in that state? He should have paid for their
votes the same way he had used patronage to pocket the state? The APC would not
have conscripted the Oba of Lagos to do their yeoman’s job of threatening the
Igbos with extinction if they did not vote for APC candidate?
Talking about sectional politics, who plays it better than
Soyinka’s people? In 1999 Soyinka’s people congregated around sectional
Alliance for Democracy (AD) while the rest of Nigeria congregated around more
nationalistic Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The voting pattern of his people
then did not meet Soyinka’s criteria for qualification as sectional politics.
It was a pragmatic decision by his people? Was it not sectional interest that
made AD not to field a presidential candidate in 2003 and choose instead to
vote for Obasanjo of the PDP when it became obvious like the case of Jonathan
that the North that helped Obasanjo to power was determined to kick him out?
Besides, since 1999, the North East has never voted for the
government at the centre preferring to vote for the opposition All Nigeria
Peoples Party (ANPP) but I have never heard Soyinka accusing that region of
sectionalism. When the Igbos voted for Jonathan in 2011 why were they not
accused of sectional politics then? Because Soyinka’s people also voted for him
then, probably? For voting the same South-South presidential candidate of PDP
in 2015 the Igbos of the South East are today considered sectional by the likes
of Soyinka.
The Igbo were very passionate about Jonathan’s presidency and
many of them voted for Jonathan because in their estimation Jonathan performed
better than all the past presidents (military and civilians) including Obasanjo
and therefore deserves a second term. They cannot apologise to Soyinka or any
other hater for the choice they made. It is the same way that the people of North
East, North West owe no apology to any one for rejecting Jonathan in 2011 and
2015 presidential elections.
My worry is that Ndi Igbo are now being crucified the the sins of an I jaw man whose people sabotaged the Igbo during the civil war and held on to their properties even till this day in the name of abandoned property even as other regions have released the properties of Ndi Igbo. My worry is also that Jonathan did not do enough in his 6 years rule to pacify Ndi Igbo for the support they gave to him. He was probably waiting for his second tenurf which never came. He could not build the second Niger bridge, yet he built one of the costliest and largest dam in the north. The international airport in Enugu is more in name than in reality. Yet Ndigbo supported him. This shows that Ndigbo are the true Nigerian. We should ignore Soyinka. He is an old man. We should have no regret for very soon that unholy alliance between the north and west will be broken and the north will sougbt for their traditional political allies who are the South East and the South South. Then the terms of agreement will be reviewed
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ReplyDeleteLast night I dreamed. I saw my father -a full knighted Igbo: Upper-titled man of apical Ozo and an imperator of his cycle of Ozo-Atulukpa-Okala [onye chizue, obulu mmoo, bulukwa mmadu]!
ReplyDeleteMy father sat amidst many ndi-mgbe-ochie; ndi okonye mgbi-Ichi, ndi Nze-Na-Ozo -he sat among the ancestors in our Obi [Obi Onenulu of the Ancestors who were very religious!] when he called me to say:
"Tell Ndigbo to rejoice in a million million ways mocking derisively the badluck of Igbo attackers. He said: “Ndigbo has come atop with forgiveness! They showed that Yeshua is alive in them! For forgiving the Niger-Deltans through Jonathan, they achieved milestones of greater far zenith of virtues ...And we are here with Abiama, Ju-Uda na Isiaka who caused it to happen!"
So nothing --absolutely nothing will shake off the togetherness we demonstrated by voting Jona... Yoruba are the gentile nation of many gods or the name will not be Yer 'o' baal. I suspect that the too many gods they worship are always at war within their ranks, sometimes spewing xenophobic tendencies, many times causing confusions of the 'operation wetie' magnitude.
Okee Igbo you are absolutely right, the people of Delta have seen that the Igbo have forgiven them and that their nearest neighbour-the Igbos-will stand shoulder to shoulder with them when it matters most.
DeleteIf for nothing else, every Yoruba intellectual should be grateful to the Igbo who have been more than consistent in following on the Zik's worldview of Nigeria. We developed Lagos which has given the greatest of high hope to the Yoruba race. This happened because Zik did many to make Lagos, or let them answer this:
ReplyDelete"Azikiwe grew up in Lagos, not Awo; Azikiwe went to boarding school in downtown Lagos; not Awolowo. Azikiwe was elected to represent Lagos in the Legislative Council, not Awolowo. Azikiwe established his flagship newspaper, the West African Pilot, that spear-headed Nigeria and West Africa's political and cultural renaissance from 1937-1957, in Lagos, not Awolowo; Zik Enterprises was located in Lagos; Azikiwe Athletics Club was located in Yaba, Lagos; Azikiwe's political life was staged in Lagos; Azikiwe's party governed Lagos, and anybody who wishes to understand the impact of the NCNC as the governing party in the Lagos City Council should look at the record of public work in Housing, Municipal Services and Infrastructure carried out in Lagos from 1954 to 1966. Now, Obafemi Awolowo had a certain disdain for Lagos; he did not feel comfortable in its cosmopolitan space. He placed this on record in his own memoirs. Until he served in Gowon's cabinet from 1967-1972, he never had a life in Lagos. He had no political influence in Lagos, and he had absolutely nothing to do with the policies that shaped Lagos. Azikiwe was deeply involved both in the cultural, economic, and political life of Lagos at the top floor. Of this, only the ignorant can dispute.”
It is good that you have taken us to this historical excursion of Zik's contributions to the development of Lagos as leader of the governing party of the Lagos City Council and as an investor in the city. It is another indication that Lagos was not built by Yoruba alone. Yoruba towns that are literally developed by the Yoruba like Ibadan, Ogbomosho, Ijebu Ode etc why are they not as developed as Lagos?
Delete“... Zik resurrected an already politically dead Herbert Macaulay, retired from politics by the defeat of his NDP by the NYM, until Azikiwe brought him back to life. Zik formed the NCNC and put Macaulay at its head. At Macaulay's death in 1944, Zik gave him a rousing funeral never seen before in Lagos, and assumed undisputed leadership of the NCNC. With his contacts with T. Akunna, Wallace-Johnson and George Padmore, Azkiwe provided Michael Imoudu the blueprint for organizing Nigeria's first major Labour strike against colonialism in Lagos, and nationally. Until Azikiwe started his newspaper chains, there was no such thing as "National Politics." The network of Azikiwe's papers literally "imagined" Nigeria into being for the first time and defined the contours of modern Nigeria as a national political space. If there was any other person in their generation who could stand shoulder to shoulder with Azikiwe in that period, it was the brilliant H.O. Davies. But he was bought out in 1946 by the colonial government with a job in the Customs Services. In 1946, as a result of his sustained opposition, Arthur Richard's was compelled to invite Azikiwe to say, basically, "okay, what do you want?" and it was Azikiwe who articulated and itemized the demands that set Nigeria towards decolonization, starting with the convening of the Ibadan Conferences by 1951 & 2; the establishment of the Elliot Commission and subsequently the founding of the University of Ibadan in 1948, and the Nigerianization of the Administrative Services in 1946/7 ( For further elaboration, go read Michael Crowder's The Story of Nigeria).” [thanks to Chidume Chudi]
ReplyDeleteOkee Igbo thanks a million for sharing this with other Nigerians and the world.
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