Obasanjo Takes A Swipe At Wole Soyinka Again

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that he maintains his view, as expressed in his three-volume autobiography, My Watch, that Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has better expertise in wine matters than in political analysis.

In the book, Obasanjo wrote, “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.”

However, last year December, shortly after the book went public, Soyinka had, in a piece titled, ‘Watch and Pray, Watch and Prey’, vehemently protested such a description (of him), calling Obasanjo ‘’an expert liar, who lies to boost his ego.’’

But in an interview granted a private television station, Channels, on a programme tagged, ‘Book Club’, Obasanjo, while holding on to his words, said what he wrote about Soyinka was purely his view, adding that Soyinka did not have to agree with him.

The former President, who added that he did not write the book to please anybody, also disclosed that there was a lingering feud between him and the Nobel laureate, who, he said, had vowed that the differences between the two of them would not be resolved on earth.

Obasanjo, however, said he had told Soyinka that, in that case, whichever of them gets to heaven first should wait at the gate to welcome the other.

He said, “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.

Punch reports..