Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, has
said former President Goodluck Jonathan was caged by some powerful
forces while in power and therefore was not aware of some of things
going on around him.
In a damning assessment of Mr.
Jonathan’s tenure, Mr. Soyinka said the former president, who left
office in May following his defeat by the incumbent, President Muhammadu
Buhari, in the March 28 presidential poll, did not know that the nation
had been compromised so badly under him until he (Soyinka) brought some
issues to his notice.
Mr. Soyinka, a professor, spoke in
an interview with the current edition Zero Tolerance magazine, a
publication of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
“Correct,” he affirmed when asked if
the former president was caged. “There were forces around Jonathan,
which he himself did not understand and that is why I stressed that
you’ve got to choose your circles of advisers very carefully, when you
are in charge. He was caged; things were going on that he did not know
about.”
Mr. Soyinka, who said he visited Mr.
Jonathan twice just before he vacated office, said on one occasion he
asked the former president what he was doing to curtail his wife,
Patience, who during the presidential campaign was indulging in hate
speech. He refused to disclose his (Jonathan) response.
According to him, “On a lighter
note, I asked him, ‘what are you doing about madam’ because that one
seems to be embarrassing the nation as usual because that seems to be
her function as so called first lady. You go to a section of the country
and tell your supporters to stone those who campaign for change and you
insult another part of the nation by calling them those who produce
children that they cannot look after. That woman should be charge for
incitement chaos. It is incredible that she is allowed to run loose.”
Asked what Mr. Jonathan’s reply was,
the Nobel Laureate said, “I am not going to tell his response
(laughs….) But I am free to tell you what I said. It will be an abuse of
privilege if I tell you his response.”
Buttressing his clam that Mr.
Jonathan was oblivious of some happenings around him while in office,
Mr. Soyinka recalled the telephone saga with the king of Morocco,
stating that he was the one that told the president about it when they
met.
He said, “I will tell you one
interesting aspect of what we discussed. I will reveal to you that
Jonathan did not know that the nation had been compromised so badly in
this telephone thing with the King of Morocco. I was the one who told
him when we met over an issue and I said to him, ‘by the way, how is the
king of Morocco? Jonathan didn’t know what I was talking about.
“When I mentioned the telephone
issue, he thought I was talking about is campaign for AfDB managing
director for which he was lobbying other heads of states. He said ‘I
haven’t spoken to him in a long time’, and I said, ‘no, you spoke to him
a few days ago.’ He said, ‘no, I intend to speak with him. I even asked
my foreign ministry to link me up with him because I am campaigning for
a candidate but I haven’t spoken to the king of Morocco.’ Then I said
to him, ‘you better go and read the newspapers of last week.’ And I can
tell you he did not know.”
Continuing, Mr. Soyinka lamented,
“So you can imagine that the president did not know that a scandal had
developed that involved a withdrawal of an ambassador!
“And again, I am revealing this to
you since this interview won’t be published till after the elections
because I wouldn’t want to be seen as campaigning for or against any one
side. It shows how in deep trouble governance can be; governance can
dig itself into a huge hole and not even know it’s in there. The
statement that was issued was issued the night when I met him.”
Mr. Soyinka came down hard on Mr.
Jonathan when asked about the criticisms that trailed his administration
that it was not fighting corruption.
“This is what we are talking about.
How can a public figure, an intelligent person like that come out to
tell the public that corruption is not stealing,” Mr. Soyinka said. As
president, you’ve got to show some example …Why should a president
involve himself in what is already structurally established and
dedicated to that purpose?”
Mr. Soyinka also said he maintained a
cordial relationship with Mr. Jonathan during his tenure despite some
attacks he felt compelled to launch on the former Nigerian leader and
his wife.
According to him, at some point, Mr.
Jonathan who ruled the country between 2010 and 2015 was tending
towards fascism.“No. It was never anything personal,” when asked why he
withdrew his support from the former president. “We marched in order to
protect the constitution, not the person of Jonathan. We retained a
cordial relationship during his tenure. However despite some attacks I
felt compelled to launch on him – and his wife. Jonathan committed some
truly alarming errors of governance. He was propelling himself towards
outright fascism.”
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