Acknowledging the importance of the internet he said, “maybe we will have to totally revise our educational system to take in this new monster…”

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has said former President Muhammadu Buhari was an “idiot” for banning the social media app then known as Twitter, now X, in Nigeria.

Soyinka said this in an interview with ARISE News Anchor Ojy Okpe 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 argued that 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.”

The Nigerian government led by Buhari had on June 4, 2021, “indefinitely suspended” Twitter’s operations in the country.

The suspension was announced by then Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, in a statement: “The federal government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria.”

The ban lasted for 222 days as it was lifted effective from 12am, January 13, 2022.

When asked if he strongly believes in regulation of the internet, Soyinka 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.”

Soyinka said 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 remain valuable contributions to the entire human enterprise.

According to Soyinka: “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.”

The literary icon added: “Something drastic has to be done about it. The publishing enterprise has a huge role to play

https://www.arise.tv/soyinka-calls-buhari-idiot-for-banning-social-media-in-nigeria-in-2021/#google_vignette

Cowardly old man, now you have mouth to talk

There's something about these corny souls 🌽
It's how they are at home with their barefaced group hypocrisy.

Prof Soyinka was well and alive when Buhari was on seat and sending the bird to the gulag. He never uttered a word. The man is out of office in less than six months and you've suddenly found your voice to call him names.

We see this disgusting behaviour among the Zombies who chanted darling daddy and sai baba for 8 years only to repudiate the man like they've never known him once he left office.

This character makes me realise Zombies are not to be taken seriously when it comes to nation building.

What I'm still curious about presently is what exactly drives them? I'm really interested in knowing where they derive their energy and what principles(if any) drives their group interest.

Buhari is worse than that

Kukutente23:
There's something about these corny souls 🌽
It's how they are at home with their barefaced group hypocrisy.

Prof Soyinka was well and alive when Buhari was on seat and sending the bird to the gulag. He never uttered a word. The man is out of office in less than six months and you've suddenly found your voice to call him names.

We see this disgusting behaviour among the Zombies who chanted darling daddy and sai baba for 8 years only to repudiate the man like they've never known him once he left office.

This character makes me realise Zombies are not to be taken seriously when it comes to nation building.

What I'm still curious about presently is what exactly drives them? I'm really interested in knowing where they derive their energy and what principles(if any) drives their group interest.

They did it so that "their brother" can become President.

But the real question is, now that Tinubu is the President, how has the life of the average yoruba man improved? Won't their odds still be the same as that of other tribes? If that's the case, then why vote along tribal/religious lines??

I don't think anyone needs validation from Prof Sonyinka to know that Bubu na better hidiot!

Why you dey talk ham now? You for talk during him tenure make dey give you better beating

Both of them are idiets

Typical yoruba man,

This tribe and cowardice... This original gbajue man waited for buhari to leave office before calling him an "idiot".. I remember whoever criticised buhari's administration was called Ipob and Igbo... Now the way and manner most of them insult the previous government now their tribesman is president. Funny lot.

this man with grey


always running and hiding

I once thought he his a man of his word and great heart

all i see his a coward, who is hiding for his life

Come and see his house here in Abeokuta, very bushy place, that it will be difficult for someone to know where to locate him

Always dishing stupid comment when he feels things are at peace

Soyinka called Patience Jonathan a sheepopotamus. So calling Buhari an idiot is not a surprise. The main point is the issue of hypocrisy exhibited by the professor that invaded a radio station with gun because his candidate did not win. He keeps talking about obedients using foul language when he is the professor of foul languages.

APC/Tinubu supporters clapped for Buhari for the ban. Is he saying that Tinubu supporters are idiots too?

he was And Is an Idiot!!

The Gbajue himself

Both buhari and Soyinka are idiots. Gone are the days when they say old people are wise people.

Yoruba

A very unstable entity

Buhari is a certified idiot nah. Nobody can argue that

Is buhari not an idiot ?
Is soyinka not an illiterate?

Then I woke up, and found myself in Nigeria

Buhari was a disaster that u wole soyinka helped come to power.

In fact let's face facts, Northerners are a disaster

An Idiot confirming the status of another known idiot. Nothing else to say here!

Kukutente23:
There's something about these corny souls 🌽
It's how they are at home with their barefaced group hypocrisy.

Prof Soyinka was well and alive when Buhari was on seat and sending the bird to the gulag. He never uttered a word. The man is out of office in less than six months and you've suddenly found your voice to call him names.

We see this disgusting behaviour among the Zombies who chanted darling daddy and sai baba for 8 years only to repudiate the man like they've never known him once he left office.

This character makes me realise Zombies are not to be taken seriously when it comes to nation building.

What I'm still curious about presently is what exactly drives them? I'm really interested in knowing where they derive their energy and what principles(if any) drives their group interest.

When. some people call them. cowards, there's a reason. It's not hatred but it's who they are

Old age is taking its toll on baba





He needs to goan rest in peace

Who has read this book "The Wiseman Aging Foolishly"....









What an interesting read!

Include the current regime too

Proff were u not here wen he bann it ?

What was he then ?

Kukutente23:
Acknowledging the importance of the internet he said, “maybe we will have to totally revise our educational system to take in this new monster…”



https://www.arise.tv/soyinka-calls-buhari-idiot-for-banning-social-media-in-nigeria-in-2021/#google_vignette

Mannabbqgrill Dem don call ur darling daddy IDIOT o. What u gonna do about it?

hmmm