OAM4J:

[size=13pt]. . . his visit insensitive, an ego trip — Soyinka[/size]

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has described former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Maiduguri visit to the family of Mohammed Yusuf, the slain leader of the fundamentalist Boko Haram sect, as one of the ‘crassest, most insensitive, self ingratiating acts ever recorded in the history of any nation in recent memory.’


Soyinka in a press statement on Saturday did not hide his disgust at the ex-President’s action and said the timing of the visit was wrong because the nation and the international community was still mourning victims of the August 26 suicide bombing attack of the United Nations office in Abuja — an attack the Boko Haram claimed responsibility for.


The playwright said this was not a time for anyone to play statesman because the country was yet to come to terms with the UN office bombing and the survivors of the attack were still in trauma.


He said Obasanjo’s visit had turned the UN commemoration event to a charade and an empty husk without the germ of authentic fellow feeling.


He said, “Timing is a crucial part of leadership intelligence and sensibility. It is in fact a bedrock formation of military training. Was it an accident of timing, or was it deliberate, that this ex-militrician president undertook his visit at the time when the major part of the nation attempted to come together in communion with the souls of the departed, and in sympathy with the trauma of the survivors?


“It is known as an ego trip. You do not play ‘statesman’ over the mangled bodies of victims, least of all where their violators insist on the righteousness of their very conduct.”


Soyinka said the visit to the late Yusuf’s family was unnecessary because the Boko Haram sect had not expressed remorse or conceded to error; rather[b] the sect had threatened more bomb attacks after the UN incident.
[/b]


He said, “It goes beyond politics and involves sheer decency, sensitivity and the capacity for just compassion. It is gross, indecent, worse than pornographic, an obsequious consecration of violence, a groveling, simpering inauguration of a culture of submissiveness in the face of aggravation; all masquerading as statesman conscience and pietistic justifications such as - Blessed are the Peacemakers.


“Peacemaking? Very well. But do you select a day on which the survivors gather to reconcile with their losses and gather strength for the future? What has happened here is a pitiable spectacle that covers a nation in shame; and let there be no mistake, it is anything but passive.


“It is an act of aggression, a slap in the face of the bereaved and wounded, including the permanently disfigured. It desecrates the memory of the fallen and casts doubts on any claim to humanism and capacity for compassion of the Nigerian people.”

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201109183143720

oyb:

maybe if were had family and friends in the un bomblast he would understand what soyinka is talking about. seriously, there should be some sort of age/intelligence test before people have access to this section

oyb:

its sad - all these empty headed teeny boppers running their mouths and making it clear to us that their generation is already lost

which way forward nigeria?

wole soyinka has shed more of his blood for this country than most of you empty headed louts know.

he was imprisoned by different regimes for speaking his mind.

mitofag:


He was imprisoned once. Get your facts straight.

When yawa is about to gas, Soyinka is always the first to run to obodo-London and Obodo-America.

Lets be frank, You cannot compare Soyinka with OBJ. OBJ was willing to die for Nigeria. I respect that. Soyinka did everything he did for his personal recognition and self-aggrandizement. It was never for the greater good.


Anyway, you need to watch your mouth. It doesnt reflect good on you when you allow your emotions to control what you say.

~Bluetooth:

So soyinka wants us to siddon they look while boko haram carry on with their bombings cuz I still don't know why he's thinking peaceful approach won't solve the boko crisis.Looking through his grammar,there is no where he offered answer to the problem of boko haram but he's tried hard to pull down someone that initiated something.It takes more down grammar or luck to rule a country but if diplomacy will bring the necessary peace,giving it a try isn't a bad idea.
Soyinka should offer reasonable solutions to the problem on ground not unreasonable criticism.this is not a time to gain from another man's attempt at peace-making.

Wole Soyinka is back again  with his bullshit, na when money don dey finish for em hand e dey come out to spit rubbish. This are people praying for disaster in nigeria everyday. Hey Mr Wole thanks since you been splitting bullshit nothing has changed. Your words are meaningless for now.

@ Hoodrat , na wa ooo Is this your level of thinking,  has Soyinka turned up @ your doorstep to ask you for money,  Uncle Wole is very comfortable in every respect,  he does not need too much money like the
most Nigerians steal,  You sure don't know him. He lives a very simple and non complex life,

Don't spit what you don't know.  You think Uncle wole is like OBJ doing power show all over Nigeria @ age close to 80,

Is that how Mandela interferes in SA Politics  agbaya lasan lasan, 

Toyz:

In as much as I respect Soyinka and his view & I sure utterly despise OBJ from time immemorial, bt what has Mr.Soyinka progressively & concretely done apart from criticise (ism).
He should in his God given wisdom do more than talk.

mitofag:


Thank you jare.

It doesnt matter what you do, the most important thing is the intention. When you are bleeding, the first thing is to stop further blood loss, Anyhow possible.

OBJ has made a great effort in that.  he has used his political influence in trying to stop further blood shed from what is obviously  politically orchestrated terroristic acts.

Soyinka should mind his business, and let people with practical ideas to do what is necessary to save  further loss of lives.


When he was at FRSC, he  failed woefully. Ordinary FRSC, Soyinka could not manage, and he is here criticizing a two-time president who was willing  and is still willing to   die so the rest of us may live.

Lastly: It was Benjamin Franklin who said, "any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do." Fools like Soyinka only criticize and condemn in order to try to feel superior to the one they're condemning. Not only does it take character to be understanding and forgiving, but it also takes the desire and will to do so. It's a kind of enlightenment when one comes to these realizations.

Imagine the opening tense scene in a crime thriller tailor-made for direction by an Alfred Hitchcock or Stanley Kubrick in which a British Prime Minister and his chief aide are on their way to a secret rendezvous to meet directly with the IRA Army Council, all eight of whom will be clad in masks.

This clandestine meeting is set to take place in rugged rural countryside somewhere close to the Fermanagh-Donegal border. Uncomfortably seated in the back of a black Hackney taxi are Tony Blair and his trusted confidante, Jonathan Powell, both crouching incognito behind newspapers

goggs:

I always believe that peace makers of whatever make should be encouraged. [size=13pt]We may not like OBJ but his latest peace move is in order. It is true that people are mourning the death of their loved ones  but would Wole Soyinka had spoken if those killed were not UN staff? [/size]Who says there cant be justice after peace.

Beaf:

I posted this on another thread. Its funny the way people base their arguments on illogical statements and theories they pluck from thin air. We keep hearing that no one talks to terrorists. . . I'm sorry, but thats just bloody ignorant tosh.

---

Where do you guy's get all these "laws of talking to terrorists" from?
Here is pictorial proof that govts can talk to terrorists and that such talks do indeed yield great results.

Tony Blair (British Prime Minister) and Gerry Adams of the IRA (terrorist group).
The IRA did much more damage than boko haram can ever muster.

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/everyone-was-nervous-gerry-adams-hands-were-visibly-shaking-1324808.html

[img]http://www.independent.ie/multimedia/archive/00175/gerrytony_175992t.jpg[/img]

panmun:

I dont know according to soyinka if the victims of the UN bomb blast will be more important than the would be victim of the coming bomb blasts, he (soyinka) has not thought of a way to help issues why make noise over what someone else is doing ; be it that eh (obasanjo)  fails or succeeds, `