Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka painted the
sorry picture of a helpless President Jonathan
who is ostensibly surrounded by aides holding
him captive.
Soyinka said until he told Jonathan about what
was turning out to be an embarrassing diplomatic
spat between Morocco and Nigeria, the President
didn't know that the Moroccans had recalled their
ambassador from Nigeria over a telephone
conversation that never was. The Moroccan royal
palace said the king had declined a request for a
phone conversation, while Nigeria insisted that
the two leaders had spoken at length. Nigeria
later backed down and admitted the conversation
did not happen, wrote the Guardian.
"Here is a situation where a president did not
even know that a foreign country, a friendly
country, had withdrawn its ambassador from
Nigeria. I was the one who told him. He jumped
up as if his seat was on fire. I couldn't believe it.
He was not aware that for about five days the
media had been absolutely hysterical with this
embarrassing situation between the two. It was
that very night that he made a public statement
about it for the first time", Soyinka recalls.
"So when I say that there is a force around, I know
what I'm talking about. There is a very sinister
force in control and it is that sinister cabal which
is responsible for caging him in and showing him
what they think he should know about and
keeping away from him things which are not in
their interest, and this for me is the most
dangerous situation that any nation can be in."
The man of letters also said the ongoing general
elections have become a shamble and the build
up, an embarrassing spectacle.
"Most expensive, most prodigal, wasteful,
senseless, I mean really insensitive in terms of
what people live on in this country," Soyinka
continued. "This was the real naira-dollar
extravaganza, spent on just subverting, shall we
say, the natural choices of people.
Just money
instead of argument, instead of position
statements.
"And of course the sponsoring of violence in
various places, in addition to this festive
atmosphere in which every corner, every pillar,
every electric pole is adorned with one candidate
or the other, many of them in poses which remind
one of Nollywood.
"I get a feeling sometimes that some of these
candidates were just locked in their wardrobes
and they were told: 'Just take selfies in there and
don't come out until you've finished the entire
wardrobe.' All kinds of postures.
Just ridiculous. It
has been an embarrassing exercise in terms of
electioneering," Soyinka said.
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