Contributed by Prince Kassim Afegbua -

• Says Nobel laureate is suffering from intellectual cirrhosis

Spokesman of former military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, Prince Kassim Afegbua, has taken Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka to the cleaners over the latter's comment Wednesday that IBB was not qualified to give the keynote address at this year's NLNG awards ceremony.

Afegbua said that the recent outburst of Soyinka are not only misplaced, but have further confirmed the world renowned intellectual as two-faced, 'ego-defensive ideologue' who never practices what he preaches.
In a written response titled SOYINKA'S MISPLACED OUTBURST ON IBB OVER THE NLNG AWARD EVENT, Afegbua who is also the acting national chairman of the National Democratic Party (NDP) said it was in the character of Soyinka to dine with the powers that be in the night only to come out in the morning to condemn them in order to endear himself to the unsuspecting public.

"There is nothing more nauseating than to see a man trying to be holier than thou and yet expecting the public to take him serious. Such deep-rooted pretentiousness has been the bane of most writers who never practice what they preach, either in their works of fiction or daily lives. Professor Wole Soyinka falls into this category of ego-defensive ideologues who try as much as possible to portray a different world view from their actual characteristics", Afegbua said.

[b]The rejoinder from the IBB spokesman reads in part:
"From all the available records of service in Soyinka's trajectory in life, there are legions of references to suggest that he is a man of dual personality. It is a matter of fact that Soyinka served in the Babangida regime in the capacity of Chairman, Federal Road Safety Commission. It is also on video tape that he publicly endorsed the Structural Adjustment Programme of the Babangida era. It is also a matter of fact, that he had always abhorred the objective behind the Nobel Laureate until he was made a beneficiary. It is on record that he accepted the second highest honour of Commander of the Federal Republic [CFR] during military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida.
The award was to shore up his profile against the wholesale criticisms by his colleague writers, of his Nobel Laureate which they said he did not merit. It is on record that he went overseas to campaign against the democratic elections of 1983 won by Alhaji Shehu Shagari, on account of the elections being rigged. It is also on record that his tenure as Chairman of FRSC was not the best of times for the organization. He ran the Commission as his personal fiefdom. When the Abacha regime tried to investigate his tenure of the FRSC he went on self exile.It is a matter of historical correctness that he walked into the studio of Western Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation in 1965 to substitute a pre-recorded broadcast of the Premier just to cause chaos. Typical of a man whose upbringing was admittedly characterized with storm and stress, he established the Seadogs Confraternity during his undergraduate years in the University of Ibadan. We all know the implications of that confraternity in the life of Nigerian universities. Such a man cannot, by every societal standard, be a role model. In the light of the above, it will be appropriate to say in very unambiguous terms that Professor Wole Soyinka is suffering from pathological self-righteous hypocrisy of the first order. The fact that he tries to exonerate himself from the life span of an administration that he served in, is suggestive of low leadership quality. Leaders must be able to own up to their responsibilities and should be accountable to them at all times. That has been the hallmark of General Babangida. For sure, IBB is no capuchin [saint] to borrow the word of Napoleon Bonaparte but he knows his onus when it comes to leadership and service delivery. A man like Soyinka who cannot... cannot possibly wear the toga of a moralist in the African sense of it.[/b] I can only conclude with the strength of psycho-analytical permission, that he represents the fictive Baroka, his heroic character in his first play "Lion and the Jewel", who sits atop the village stead of Ilujinle milking the freshness of the female specie in a royal grandeur of a common "Baale" [village head]

Writers who suffer from intellectual cirrhosis like Wole Soyinka possess the capacity to write what the public cannot simply understand thus betraying the fundamental essence of literature. The strength and relevance of any work of arts is determined by the number of people who are naturally willing to patronize it and not the ones that are read for examination sake. Ask Nigerian writers who Soyinka appears to be protecting how many of Soyinka’s works are relevant in the true sense of curative literature.

General Babangida provided an avenue for intellectuals to flourish during his tenure. He encouraged their ingenuity and promoted creativity to the extent that policies that were fashioned out during his regime have since become the cornerstone of modern Nigeria. The intellect of those Professors that graciously served the military regime of IBB, cannot be questioned.
It smacks of shamelessness for a man who wants the world to see him as pro-democracy activist to be defending a coupist who paid the supreme price for his action. Whether we like it or not, there is punishment for every coup plotter in the military, but the likes of Soyinka can afford to defend such coupist since he too unsettled nerves in his Western Broadcasting Corporation scenario. I cannot fashion out when coup plotting has become acceptable in our law books.
The price for failed coup plot is death. I can't even explain his new found love for foreign countries when on the one hand, he frowned against colonialism. What does the haven of the White man hold for him in this present time? This also applies to other Professors who are living in deplorable condition overseas but have chosen to remain put simply because of the fat foreign exchange that the Dollar fetches for them. If the urge for foreign adventure was as a result of military rule as these characters would have us believe, what explanation would they advance in the light of this democracy?
Even in the face of daunting challenges that confronted the Babangida regime, IBB was able to overcome the activities of sycophants and saboteurs like Wole Soyinka who are seen during daylight condemning government but go cap in hand at night to embrace it. Wole Soyinka was in political doldrum when IBB decided to rehabilitate him and in the process got into public prominence during that regime. Can Soyinka in all sincerity point at anything that he has contributed in bringing to fruition in Nigeria despite his larger than life posturing? Can he say in specific details what he has ploughed back to a country that nurtured him to assume this Laureate status?
General Babangida cannot be distracted by the rantings of a Wole Soyinka. A thousand and one Soyinkas cannot also undo him. It will even surprise Soyinka to know that Babangida would add more intellectual value to the NLNG award process than all the noise makers writers who easily blame Babangida for their unproductivity and utter intellectual laziness in the foregone years. Such excuses do not sell any longer."

http://consciencedaily.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=125

first to comment

@op pls change ur topic to include IBB's name so this page shall surely make the front page and all shall see the glory of God in my life.

Bless!

If Soyinka does not deserve it then who does?

Is it Kassim Afegbua, Patience Jonathan or Retardeen himself?

la_unique: Contributed by Prince Kassim Afegbua -

• Says Nobel laureate is suffering from intellectual cirrhosis

Spokesman of former military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, Prince Kassim Afegbua, has taken Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka to the cleaners over the latter's comment Wednesday that IBB was not qualified to give the keynote address at this year's NLNG awards ceremony.

Afegbua said that the recent outburst of Soyinka are not only misplaced, but have further confirmed the world renowned intellectual as two-faced, 'ego-defensive ideologue' who never practices what he preaches.
In a written response titled SOYINKA'S MISPLACED OUTBURST ON IBB OVER THE NLNG AWARD EVENT, Afegbua who is also the acting national chairman of the National Democratic Party (NDP) said it was in the character of Soyinka to dine with the powers that be in the night only to come out in the morning to condemn them in order to endear himself to the unsuspecting public.

"There is nothing more nauseating than to see a man trying to be holier than thou and yet expecting the public to take him serious. Such deep-rooted pretentiousness has been the bane of most writers who never practice what they preach, either in their works of fiction or daily lives. Professor Wole Soyinka falls into this category of ego-defensive ideologues who try as much as possible to portray a different world view from their actual characteristics", Afegbua said.

The rejoinder from the IBB spokesman reads in part:
"From all the available records of service in Soyinka's trajectory in life, there are legions of references to suggest that he is a man of dual personality. It is a matter of fact that Soyinka served in the Babangida regime in the capacity of Chairman, Federal Road Safety Commission. It is also on video tape that he publicly endorsed the Structural Adjustment Programme of the Babangida era. [b]It is also a matter of fact, that he had always abhorred the objective behind the Nobel Laureate until he was made a beneficiary. It is on record that he accepted the second highest honour of Commander of the Federal Republic [CFR] during military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida.
The award was to shore up his profile against the wholesale criticisms by his colleague writers, of his Nobel Laureate which they said he did not merit. It is on record that he went overseas to campaign against the democratic elections of 1983 won by Alhaji Shehu Shagari, on account of the elections being rigged. It is also on record that his tenure as Chairman of FRSC was not the best of times for the organization. He ran the Commission as his personal fiefdom. When the Abacha regime tried to investigate his tenure of the FRSC he went on self exile.It is a matter of historical correctness that he walked into the studio of Western Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation in 1965 to substitute a pre-recorded broadcast of the Premier just to cause chaos. Typical of a man whose upbringing was admittedly characterized with storm and stress, he established the Seadogs Confraternity during his undergraduate years in the University of Ibadan. We all know the implications of that confraternity in the life of Nigerian universities. Such a man cannot, by every societal standard, be a role model. In the light of the above, it will be appropriate to say in very unambiguous terms that Professor Wole Soyinka is suffering from pathological self-righteous hypocrisy of the first order. The fact that he tries to exonerate himself from the life span of an administration that he served in, is suggestive of low leadership quality. Leaders must be able to own up to their responsibilities and should be accountable to them at all times. That has been the hallmark of General Babangida. For sure, IBB is no capuchin [saint] to borrow the word of Napoleon Bonaparte but he knows his onus when it comes to leadership and service delivery. A man like Soyinka who cannot... cannot possibly wear the toga of a moralist in the African sense of it.[/b] I can only conclude with the strength of psycho-analytical permission, that he represents the fictive Baroka, his heroic character in his first play "Lion and the Jewel", who sits atop the village stead of Ilujinle milking the freshness of the female specie in a royal grandeur of a common "Baale" [village head]

Writers who suffer from intellectual cirrhosis like Wole Soyinka possess the capacity to write what the public cannot simply understand thus betraying the fundamental essence of literature. The strength and relevance of any work of arts is determined by the number of people who are naturally willing to patronize it and not the ones that are read for examination sake. Ask Nigerian writers who Soyinka appears to be protecting how many of Soyinka’s works are relevant in the true sense of curative literature.

General Babangida provided an avenue for intellectuals to flourish during his tenure. He encouraged their ingenuity and promoted creativity to the extent that policies that were fashioned out during his regime have since become the cornerstone of modern Nigeria. The intellect of those Professors that graciously served the military regime of IBB, cannot be questioned.
It smacks of shamelessness for a man who wants the world to see him as pro-democracy activist to be defending a coupist who paid the supreme price for his action. Whether we like it or not, there is punishment for every coup plotter in the military, but the likes of Soyinka can afford to defend such coupist since he too unsettled nerves in his Western Broadcasting Corporation scenario. I cannot fashion out when coup plotting has become acceptable in our law books.
The price for failed coup plot is death. I can't even explain his new found love for foreign countries when on the one hand, he frowned against colonialism. What does the haven of the White man hold for him in this present time? This also applies to other Professors who are living in deplorable condition overseas but have chosen to remain put simply because of the fat foreign exchange that the Dollar fetches for them. If the urge for foreign adventure was as a result of military rule as these characters would have us believe, what explanation would they advance in the light of this democracy?
Even in the face of daunting challenges that confronted the Babangida regime, IBB was able to overcome the activities of sycophants and saboteurs like Wole Soyinka who are seen during daylight condemning government but go cap in hand at night to embrace it. Wole Soyinka was in political doldrum when IBB decided to rehabilitate him and in the process got into public prominence during that regime. Can Soyinka in all sincerity point at anything that he has contributed in bringing to fruition in Nigeria despite his larger than life posturing? Can he say in specific details what he has ploughed back to a country that nurtured him to assume this Laureate status?
General Babangida cannot be distracted by the rantings of a Wole Soyinka. A thousand and one Soyinkas cannot also undo him. It will even surprise Soyinka to know that Babangida would add more intellectual value to the NLNG award process than all the noise makers writers who easily blame Babangida for their unproductivity and utter intellectual laziness in the foregone years. Such excuses do not sell any longer."

http://consciencedaily.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=125

I so much love this kasim afebgua,he know where to punch the old fool.
It should also be noted that when an elder misbehaves with an unbridled tongue like soyinka,it gives room for children to insult him. Wole has shown withing the past few days that he is truly suffering from mental cirrhosis.


from insulting the president and the first lady and now the highly respected gap toothed general of our time.
@bolded .....every single sentence is true.

dayokanu: If Soyinka does not deserve it then who does?

Is it Kassim Afegbua, Patience Jonathan or Retardeen himself?

you have never reasoned with your brains before,so am not surprised.

phuck wole soyinka.

ifihearam:

you have never reasoned with your brains before,so am not surprised.

phuck wole soyinka.

Anyone who knows you well would know you dont have anyone in your community who can hit water if thrown off a boat.

Generation of clueless fellows, No wonder "Phuck Soyinka" is the only response you could muster to a man who has more knowledge in his toe nails than everyone in your ancestry

I beg to differ. . .LIKE ACHEBE. . .LIKE SOYINKA.
People do get DEMENTED, SENILE. . .OR WITH SENILE DEMENTIA(a combination of both in OLD AGE)
If they are not talking rubbish. . . they are writing TRASH!
You first get angry at them. . .THEN YOU PITY THEM!
Shikena!

mgbeketoto: I beg to differ. . .LIKE ACHEBE. . .LIKE SOYINKA.
People do get DEMENTED, SENILE. . .OR WITH SENILE DEMENTIA(a combination of both in OLD AGE)
If they are not talking rubbish. . . they are writing TRASH!
You first get angry at them. . .THEN YOU PITY THEM!
Shikena!

Must you brandish your tribalistic tentacles here? What has Achebe got to do with this?

I need to call this KASSIM . . .
Handsome dude!

la_unique: Must you brandish your tribalistic tentacles here? What has Achebe got to do with this?

Where did I state tribe in my post?
See how you just exposed YOUR CHEAP, ETHNIC CONSTITUTION with my reference to ACHEBE.
IT IS ONE THING TO START A THREAD. . .and YET quite another to follow INTELLIGENTLY.

Nobel laureate is suffering from intellectual cirrhosis

JUST LIKE ACHEBE. . . .

I really don give a PHOCK about YOUR 'TRIBE' or mine sweerie.

I AM A NIGERIAN. . . Thank ya!

but this gist stale na...na 2007 gist biko

OP why dont u want me to shine on front page na

dayokanu: If Soyinka does not deserve it then who does?

Is it Kassim Afegbua, Patience Jonathan or Retardeen himself?

@bold, op's father.

mgbeketoto:

Where did I state tribe in my post?
See how you just exposed YOUR CHEAP, ETHNIC CONSTITUTION with my reference to ACHEBE.
IT IS ONE THING TO START A THREAD. . .and YET quite another to follow INTELLIGENTLY.



JUST LIKE ACHEBE. . . .

I really don give a PHOCK about YOUR 'TRIBE' or mine sweerie.

I AM A NIGERIAN. . . Thank ya!

My problem is that we were talking about Soyinka and you mentioned Achebe. Do you want to start another tribal mudslinging? Don't you know the tribal heat any Achebe vs Soyinka debate generates?

scribble: but this gist stale na...na 2007 gist biko

OP why dont u want me to shine on front page na

Lol, the mods can still do something about it.

mgbeketoto: I beg to differ. . .LIKE ACHEBE. . .LIKE SOYINKA.
People do get DEMENTED, SENILE. . .OR WITH SENILE DEMENTIA(a combination of both in OLD AGE)
If they are not talking rubbish. . . they are writing TRASH!
You first get angry at them. . .THEN YOU PITY THEM!
Shikena!

Still scratching my head,wondering what Achebe has to do with this thread.

la_unique: Lol, the mods can still do something about it.

oh word!

*enters into prayer mode*

Dear God, touch the mods hearts that this topic, despite it being stale may hit front page before Nigeria wakes up tomorrow.
My enemies shall see me glowing in the front page. You said I shall be the head and not the tail and I shall tower above mine enemies. You also said you will prepare a table before me. Let Nairaland know that it is you that has done this. Amen

la_unique: My problem is that we were talking about Soyinka and you mentioned Achebe. Do you want to start another tribal mudslinging? Don't you know the tribal heat any Achebe vs Soyinka debate generates?

im actually glad tribalism has reduced in Nairaland these past few months, maybe the mods have become wiser, nairalanders have become more mature or we are all just directing our hate towards the President and the First lady. Whatever the case Achebe is a legend, Soyinka is too. Why that is not enough for the average Nigerian brain escapes me?

Even my Ibo girlfriend is always telling me how ibos are better than yorubas. I know she is delusional in this but i still love her though.

Does IBB's Abati have any credibility?

This man's job was to peddle lies while IBB ruined us. Doesn't he have any shame?

This is a 2007 soup of lies and BS when IBB was trying to be relevant and trying to contest the presidential election with Yaradua?? How can any dolt ascribe any credibility to Afegbua and the fox IBB, when their personal interest was all they cared for, just to be able to contest the election and be rigged in? Then the mugu GEJ was still an errand boy but see slowpoke kids posting rubbish about a man even the greatest man in your ancestry cannot look into Prof. Soyinka's eyes!

Soyinka won the Nobel prize for Literature not peace, therefore even if he eats humans; that does not make him any less worthy of the prize.

character of Soyinka to dine
with the powers that be in the night only to come
out in the morning to condemn them in order to
endear himself to the unsuspecting public.
Hahaha! Yansh exposed. Tufiakwa! Its only boys that say what they don't know, I never expect such from old men.

Am not commentin!!

If soyinka does not deserve nobel prize, then kolet am back from him

Sloan: This is a 2007 soup of lies and BS when IBB was trying to be relevant and trying to contest the presidential election with Yaradua?? How can any dolt ascribe any credibility to Afegbua and the fox IBB, when their personal interest was all they cared for, just to be able to contest the election and be rigged in? Then the mugu GEJ was still an errand boy but see slowpoke kids posting rubbish about a man even the greatest man in your ancestry cannot look into Prof. Soyinka's eyes!

So why hasn't Soyinka come out to deny it?

Where are these apes popping out from?
Is this how issues are addressed in others parts of Nigeria?they do not even attempt to address the issues.
Soyinka is this ,Soyinka is that.
Amaechi did this,Amaechi did that.
No wonder why some places are plain dead.
The other day I saw a list of odua group of companies and other SW industrialist of old which an idiot called nigerian asset.
What nigerian asset.
The asset built with money saved up by meticulous administrators when their father were drinking ogogoro under trees.

frederal: character of Soyinka to dine
with the powers that be in the night only to come
out in the morning to condemn them in order to
endear himself to the unsuspecting public.
Hahaha! Yansh exposed. Tufiakwa! Its only boys that say what they don't know, I never expect such from old men.

If this post does not betray the mis-education of our youth, I really don't know what does.

Do you have any idea how many people were deliberately tainted by IBB as part of an attempt to destroy the integrity they had built up over the years, just so as to maintain his grip on power? Of course not! Untutored minds like yours would no doubt think Babangida earned his nickname "Maradona" for sporting prowess demonstrated on a football pitch.

Then again, I suppose if serving one's fatherland with honour is a crime, one could safely pronounce - as you have done - Wole Soyinka "guilty as charged"!

...it may come as a surprise to those unfamiliar with the scope and range of our author’s political existence and tactical options that he has in fact periodically worked within the institutions and structures of the postcolonial state and in cooperation with its incumbents. The most widely known instance of this pattern entails the patience and edication with which Soyinka created and sustained the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in the 1970s and 1980s.

Similarly, Soyinka worked mightily with the national government in 1977 to avert total failure of the Festival of Arts and Culture of Africa and the Black World (FESTAC ‘77) when it became known at the last minute that the scale of the festival far exceeded the competence of the bureaucrats responsible for the planning and execution of the event or, indeed, the available infrastructures on the ground.

More controversially, in the mid-1980s Soyinka, in line with a small minority of progressives in the country, developed a partiality for the dictator, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, praising his openness to radical ideas and going so far as to volunteer opinions about the good intentions, the benevolent predispositions of a hegemon who would later annul the federal elections of June 1993 and plunge the nation into its worst period of crisis and military dictatorship in the entire post-independence period

Source: Jeyifo, B. (2004). Wole soyinka. Cambridge University Press.

IBB is a very honest and forthright dude who says the truth at all times. Little wonder Ojukwu campaigned for him against GEJ...

 character of Soyinka to dinewith the powers that be in the night only to comeout in the morning to condemn them in order toendear himself to the unsuspecting public.

Why is it that everybody who has any issue with a yorubaman will find a way to imply that the yorubad are hypocrisy and backstabers
Truth or not yorubas has to look into these angle and see how to readjust. This is not too good for them as a group bcus in no distant time no one will trust them at all.

masu:

Why is it that everybody who has any issue with a yorubaman will find a way to imply that the yorubad are hypocrisy and backstabers
Truth or not yorubas has to look into these angle and see how to readjust. This is not too good for them as a group bcus in no distant time no one will trust them at all.

who cares

Mr.falana has proven to us that talkatives are not a sign of integrity and ability.
Now if what this guy says about soyinka is true smh then soyinka need to come out and defend himself against FRSC tenure of his.

Rat dey smell, soyinka for not come out and talk about somethings ooo, i can see too many knows his secret but choose to keep mute.

The truth remains that most of these elites are too bad to be role model to our society.

As for soyinka i blv i love the man but in any good society he should be an enemy to the society bcus of his cultist institution.