₦airaland Forum

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that he
maintains his view, as expressed in his three-volume
autobiography, My Watch, that Nobel laureate, Prof.
Wole Soyinka, has better expertise in wine matters than
in political analysis.

In the book, Obasanjo wrote, “For Wole, no one can be
good, nor can anything be spot-on politically except
that which emanates from him or is ordained by him.
His friends and loved ones will always be right and
correct, no matter what they do or fail to do. He is
surely a better wine connoisseur and a more successful
aparo (guinea fowl) hunter than a political critic.”

However, last year December, shortly after the book
went public, Soyinka had, in a piece titled, ‘Watch and
Pray, Watch and Prey’, vehemently protested such a
description (of him), calling Obasanjo ‘’an expert liar,
who lies to boost his ego.’’

But in an interview granted a private television station,
Channels, on a programme tagged, ‘Book Club’,
Obasanjo, while holding on to his words, said what he
wrote about Soyinka was purely his view, adding that
Soyinka did not have to agree with him.

The former President, who added that he did not write
the book to please anybody, also disclosed that there
was a lingering feud between him and the Nobel
laureate, who, he said, had vowed that the differences
between the two of them would not be resolved on
earth.

Obasanjo, however, said he had told Soyinka that, in
that case, whichever of them gets to heaven first should
wait at the gate to welcome the other.

He said, “Wole Soyinka is a gifted man. I have always
acknowledged that but he is a bad politician and I have
also always said that. That is my own point of view. He
may agree with it, he may not agree with it.

“But having said that, I also, in my book, bring out Wole
Soyinka as I see him and that’s my own judgment; that’s
my own perspective of him. He may agree, he may not
agree but anybody can bring out his own perspective of
me.

“For instance, I know that if I want somebody to give
me the best wine, one of the people I will go to is Wole
Soyinka and I know he has a taste for good wine and I
said that in the book.”

Obasanjo also dismissed a rejoinder to his book titled,
‘Watch the Watcher’, written by the Publicity Secretary
of the Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, saying the book was
not worth being kept in anybody’s library.

Obasanjo, who said Odumakin was paid by former
President Goodluck Jonathan to write the book, said he
could not be worried because Odumakin did not write
anything that will last.

Obasanjo said, “Yinka Odumakin was hired to do the
hatchet job and he did it.
“It was part of the campaign of Goodluck Jonathan and
he did serve the purpose of Goodluck Jonathan. But
whether Goodluck Jonathan gained from it or Yinka
Odumakin gained from it, well, it’s now left to history.

“But how should I worry about that? That Yinka
Odumakin was hired by Goodluck Jonathan to do a job,
which he did and Yinka Odumakin didn’t write anything
to last. He wrote current affairs, not a book that
anybody will seriously want to keep in his library and
that’s the way I see it. And a book should be something
that somebody wants to keep in the library.”

GeeOh:
Op,haba what is dis xageration 4,baba said wine,u ar here sayin palm wine,y add salt to injury.

The former President, who added that he did not write the book to please anybody, also disclosed that there was a lingering feud between him and the Nobel laureate, who, he said, had vowed that the differences between the two of them would not be resolved on earth.

Rilwayne001:
Hehehe