Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has said that former President Muhammadu Buhari was an “idiot” for banning Twitter in Nigeria.

Soyinka said this in an interview with Arise News Television at the CANEX Live Theatre closing ceremony of the 3rd Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF) 2023, convened in Cairo, Egypt by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), in collaboration with the African Union and African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

He said while the internet and social media space had been infested with foul communications and languages by people of “lower intelligence, integrity and sense of concern of involvement, regulation of social media should be constructive, methodical and structured”.

According to Soyinka, Nigeria and Africa, in general, may have to totally reverse their educational systems to take in what he described as a new monster.

He stressed that the internet and social media are a valuable contribution to the entire human enterprise.

Soyinka said, “I see everything of value being debased; values which I grew up with as a child and that includes language, use of appropriate language.

“When I see a space being infested, a communication space infested by the people of lower intelligence, integrity, sense of concern of involvement, then existed in the print media; we should also remember that this internet, there is nothing novel all about it, it is an enhancement of something we have always been doing before.

“It is an enhancement of the print medium and there is a more critical approach to the print medium - the editor sits down, even letters to the editor particularly go through full vetting processes.

“But now you can have any kind of pig from the gutter who simply because he’s got a paw and therefore can put that paw in the dirt, in filth and then imprint it on the nearest space, that is the internet has become.

“Having known better from childhood, all the way through my development, it is an abysmal stage of one’s compelled existence to have to confront things like that.”

According to the literary icon, “something drastic has to be done about it”.

“The publishing enterprise has a huge role to play in this. Maybe we even have to organize weeklong, monthlong seminars across the African continent so that let this garbage come from elsewhere. Why should it be coming from my own society? A society that has produced engineers and doctors who are valued all over the world.”

Soyinka said it riles him to see “some garbage simply because they have access” foul up the society.

He added that he hopes he “will never meet any of them responsible in a dark alley,” because they will find out he can be young.

When asked if he strongly believes in regulation of the internet, he said, “Theoretically, if you are going to regulate, who regulates it? How does he go about it? Does regulation begin from education – new education? Do we include teaching from the level of primary schools because even children now speak a language which I don’t understand - internet language? Watch them at work there, I’m like an illiterate and I will never compete with that.

“So, maybe we will have to totally revise our educational system to take in this new monster which, however, is a valuable contribution to the entire human enterprise.

“So, while we talk about regulation, I want us to be very careful there. I don’t want some dictator like this last one (immediate former President Muhammadu Buhari who banned Twitter) attempted to do; who woke up and said I’m banning Facebook (Twitter), Idiot!

“You just wake up and say you are banning Facebook, that is nonsense! Do something constructive, methodical, structured about it, including making the criminals understand that they deserve to be somewhere else.


https://saharareporters.com/2023/11/12/buhari-was-idiot-banning-social-media-wole-soyinka

I Agree Completely With Soyinka, Buhari Was Not Even Aware That He Was The president of FRN

Facts...

Ban imports without sustainable production

Ban social media without anything to stimulate youths

Naira confisticattion and redesign because of Tinubu who later won against all cabals

Do not Expect Dem Dem people to be ever objective watch them criticize the fact they know and argued for 8 years


.

If Buhari was an IDIOT according to Wole Soyinka,
what can we then call MannaVulturegrills and other Sai Baba supporters on this forum? 🤔🤔🤨🤨

Prof is overreaching himself lately. Why the name calling

Buhari don't have authority again now.

It seems like old age has caught up with Soyinka. I'm not sure he still remembers things he said.

That's blasphemy against the god of North, Garba Will Respond Accordingly

This man speaks too much lately,you cant say which side he belongs.

There isnt anything Nobel about this Man.

Chinua Achebe was Better Off

Antoeni:
This man speaks too much lately,you cant say which side he belongs.

There isnt anything Nobel about this Man.

Chinua Achebe was Better Off

Na guilty conscience dey worry am

No be thesame CORNfessor that was scared silent during the 8yrs circle of the disasater poo'hari after bringing & supporting him to power...abi is there another one

..the character of this snake is second to none.. as a coward he is, it is after the disasater went to chill in Daura with the help of his emilokan brother Thief'nubu...he is now bold to speak just to give legitimacy to a stolen mandate.

...this creature has no honour among honourable men. Don't even dare put the fraud in thesame sentence with Chinua Achebe

Banned SM. Closed borders.

The man was a more than that. An accident.

slivertongue:
Prof is overreaching himself lately. Why the name calling

When he was calling Peter Obi and Datti bad Names, you didn't Complain o.,😏😏😕

What he said is TRUE. Buhari is an IDIOT.😌

Though Soyinka should have also called the Yoruba Man that foisted Bubu on Nigerians,
An IDIOT, too. 😒🤨🤨

The old man has finally found his voice

Yimu.

Who plugged your mic back? The person should unplug it. It’s too late

Antoeni:
Who plugged your mic back? The person should unplug it. It’s too late

..for crying out loud..have you ever heard this CORNfessor of a fraud say anything about the desecration of democrazy during & after the election of his drug Baron & certificate forger Thief'nubu

...have you ever heard this shameless man say a word about the suffering of the Nigerian people under his emilokan brother

..have you ever heard this man say anything about the negative effects of the policies of his emilokan bullion van criminal on the economy of Nigeria..

...the only voice since the emilokan grabbed & ran away with the mandate of Nigerians..is the voice he uses to go against the opposition & those against the structure of criminality..

...is this fraud honourable

This man speaks the truth 100% of the time. I so much respect this man. He fears no one and always says the truth.

This man was imprisoned in 1967 because he spoke in support of Biafra. He was just 33 years old then.

He spoke out against various military regimes especially the Obasanjo and Babangida regimes for their autocracy and dictatorship. He was almost killed by Abacha and had to flee Nigeria on a motorbike in 1998.

Even at age 76, he led the save Nigeria Group that danded that power be transmitted to Goodluck Jonathan when Yar adua was sick. He later spoke against the misrule or Jonathan and also Buhati himself.

I so respect the erudite Prof.

So you were scared when Buhari was there. That s why you kept mute then

Hehehe

Pigs will start grunting on this thread now.

They will start attacking the messenger now because he is their common enemy and ignoring the message

VinnyBaba:


When he was calling Peter Obi and Datti bad Names, you didn't Complain o.,😏😏😕

What he said is TRUE. Buhari is an IDIOT.😌

Though Soyinka should have also called the Yoruba Man that foisted Bubu on Nigerians,
An IDIOT, too. 😒🤨🤨

I said same. And in all front he is wrong. He seem media thirsty to me. Some of his comments are not only contentious but of no value to solving the present challenges.

Coward. Because buhari has stepped down, you get mouth. For 8 years of buhari misrule, this one like most yoruba did not say pim. As soon as buhari stepped down, Yoruba don start to form activist

Soyinka has bo moral righr to attack Buhari, after keeping quiet on all the transgressions of Tinubu. He only finds his voice when attacking non youruba leaders.

Who has read this story "The Presumed Wiseman Aging Foolishly"...





A perfect read

Tochi3:
Na guilty conscience dey worry am

No be thesame CORNfessor that was scared silent during the 8yrs circle of the disasater poo'hari after bringing & supporting him to power...abi is there another one

..the character of this snakes is second to none.. as a coward he is, it is after the disasater went to chill in Daura with the help of his emilokan brother Thief'nubu...he is now bold to speak just to give legitimacy to a stolen mandate.

...this creature has no honour among honourable men. Don't even dare put the fraud in thesame sentence with Chinua Achebe

Stop telling odious lies. He called Buhari out on his efferies time and again.

Wole Soyinka is an operated idiot who gets his head puffed up because of a Prize that everyone knows is highly politicised. Wole's thinks and believes that intelligence begins and ends with rote-memorising a bunch of verbose vocabularies to bamboozle the semi-educated and morons.
The University of Leeds he attended in the UK is a non-elite University. If Wole was the smart Scholar he thinks of himself, he wouldn't have settled for Leeds, idiotic one-eyed old man living in a village of the blind.

DaddyJapan:


Stop telling odious lies. He called Buhari out on his efferies time and again.

Liar, continue fooling yourself with emilokan propaganda lies & deceit

Idiot is not a foul language?

APC supporters supported Buhari's actions. Are you saying that APC supporters are also idiots?

Supported what can we call dem

VinnyBaba:

If Buhari was an IDIOT according to Wole Soyinka,
what can we then call MannaVulturegrills and other Sai Baba supporters on this forum? 🤔🤔🤨🤨

Soyinka is free to abuse Buhari, but to claim that the Internet is being infiltrated by some unwanted characters, I'll say that he is a culprit here as he used the social media to call Patient Jonathan Shepopotamus and Jonathan, nebuchadnezer amongst other terrible abuses. But suddenly the old fool wants decency to reign because he is at the receiving end.

Antoeni:
That's blasphemy against the god of North, Garba Will Respond Accordingly

Adesina from d SW.

Aboki99:
Wole Soyinka is an operated idiot who gets his head puffed up because of a Prize that everyone knows is highly politicised. Wole's thinks and believes that intelligence begins and ends with rote-memorising a bunch of verbose vocabularies to bamboozle the semi-educated and morons.
The University of Leeds he attended in the UK is a non-elite University. If Wole was the smart Scholar he thinks of himself, he wouldn't have settled for Leeds, idiotic one-eyed old man living in a village of the blind.

The emboldened statement in your post shows you know very little about the UK's HE sector.
I will say no more for now.