ABEOKUTA, MARCH 4, 2017 – Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has reignited his disagreements with Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, saying the latter is neither God or an oracle.
Obasanjo in an interview with a group of journalists to mark his 80th birthday which comes up on Monday said although he holds no grudge against the playwright, Soyinka should not be seen as either God or an oracle.
Asked whether he had forgiven Soyinka after the writer openly kicked against Obasanjo’s aspiration to become United Nations Secretary General, the former President said: “You’re absolutely wrong. I don’t hold a grudge.
“Wole Soyinka is not God. And I don’t believe there’s any human being that is absolutely right. Wole Soyinka has what I believe he has. He’s a gifted person in his own way.
“But Wole Soyinka is not an oracle. I will not accept Wole Soyinka making cathedral statement on everything. I don’t believe that anybody could do that.
“So it’s not a question of forgiveness. When Wole Soyinka does what I believe is right, I will commend him. When he says what I believe is not right, Wole Soyinka is a populist and I don’t believe in populism.”
Obasanjo also insisted that his assessment of President Muhammadu Buhari is that he has not done badly.
“President Buhari has not disappointed me. From what I know about him and what he has done, he has not disappointed me,” he said.
“In my book, I said he’s not strong on the economy. And he’s not. In fact, I said he’s not strong on foreign affairs. He’s improved somewhat on foreign affairs. But in the areas we know him, he has done his best. He has done his best in fighting insurgency. He has done his best in trying to fight corruption.”
The Herald
