Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has said that
ex-President Goodluck Jonathan was really caged
by some forces while in office.
He said Jonathan was unaware that the nation
had been compromised and that ex-First Lady
Dame Patience was on the loose and ought to be
charged for incitement or chaos.
He however said he warned a former Chairman of
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu to beware of ex-
President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He said Ribadu later confirmed that Chief
Obasanjo was using him.
Soyinka made the submissions in an interview he
granted a team from Zero Tolerance Magazine,
produced by the Media and Publicity of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC).
He said he met Jonathan on more than two
occasions and that it was obvious the former
President had no knowledge of what was going on
under his watch.
He said: “Correct. There were forces around
Jonathan, which he himself did not understand
and that is why I stressed that, you’ve got to
choose your circle of advisers very carefully, when
you are in charge. He was caged; things were
going on that he did not know about.
“And again, I am revealing this to you, since this
won’t be published till after the elections because
I won’t want to be seen as campaigning for or
against one side. It shows 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.
“Oh! It is more than two occasions, but two in
recent times. I will tell you one interesting aspect
of what we discussed. 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 his campaign for the
AfDB managing director for which he was
lobbying other Head 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
didn’t know.
“So, can you imagine that the President did not
know that a scandal had developed that involved
a withdrawal of an ambassador!”
On the former First Lady, Soyinka said she ought
to be charged for incitement and chaos
“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 got 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
charged for incitement, chaos; it’s incredible that
she is allowed to run loose.”
Pressed to disclose Jonathan’s reply to the
question on his wife, Soyinka added: “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.”
Soyinka said he did not bomb Jonathan but he
had spoken privately with the President on the
state of the nation.
He said Jonathan allowed corruption to fester
during his administration.
Soyinka gave details on how he warned ex-EFCC
chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu against being
used by ex-President Obasanjo.
He said: “I warned your former boss, Ribadu, I
told him that, your task will be done when in the
course of your investigation; you discover that the
source of the problem is the very person who
appointed you.
“He looked shocked a bit, and eventually he and I
met in London, after, he was removed and El-
Rufai was also in exile after they tried to kill him.
We met and Ribadu refused to sit down. I asked
him to sit but he said no, that until I accepted his
apology? And he said, “I should have listened to
you, I failed to listen to you. Something you said
to me, and I failed to listen” Ribadu admitted that
he realized very late that Obasanjo was using him.
“So we have to destroy that link between power
and corruption. Audu Ogbe confirmed what I am
telling you. Then it was ‘go after this one, go after
the one, ahh! You did not arrest him? Arrest his
mother!’ I am challenging Obasanjo to deny it.
“So when you are looking for corruption, you
should look at the entire stratum of the society,
while some forms of corruption are direct, others
are indirect.”
When reminded that former President Obasanjo
said Ribadu investigated him and cleared him of
all corruption charges, Soyinka said: I am not
going to speak on this; but one thing l like, when I
speak, I don’t dwell on rumours but at the same
time I form opinion within the limits of the
investigation which I make, that’s how far I go. I
am a very curious person; I‘ll always ask: is this
thing true, is it not true? And I use my own means
to investigate and come to my conclusion.”
“Of course he(Ribadu) did, that was one of the
longest discussions I had in a long time. We were
there for almost four hours and we spoke for at
least two and a half hours. I asked him a couple
of questions and he told me certain things in
confidence and there were things in which
corroborated the things I have heard from
different directions on investigations which I
myself had made.
“But the important thing is that he came around
to see that my indication to him is that you had to get to the source of corruption which grows when
it is tolerated.”

Was he recently approve of his freedom of expression?

You didn't say anything concerning the Boko Haram, which was the major weapon the North used to get the power from him. They used boko haram to make sure the president lost focus and they achieved it, that was when patience jonathan also lost control because you Nigerians are already calling his husband all sorts of rubbish name. The chibok girls scam was too much for her to bear

Him be dog

The fact that a man of the calibre of Wole Soyinka could bring himself so low as to join issues with the ex-first lady is regrettable and an abuse of ethics. Worse is his wanton display of calumny in his excerpts of the supposed meeting with the ex-president. If the thespian professor had put in his creativity into his literary works he would be able to create an incredulous fictional tale that would best the trilogy of the lord of the rings