Wole Soyinka – Adomonline.com

Soyinka defends Davido over Muslim video controversy

Emmanuella Holomah — Wed, 26 Jul 2023 11:46:47 +0000

Nigeria’s Nobel Prize-winning author, Wole Soyinka, has defended Afrobeats star Davido over a music video he shared on social media that was allegedly offensive to Muslims.

One scene is said to have portrayed men in white clothes dancing in front of a mosque.

This drew criticism from some youth prompting anger from youth at Maiduguri, in the mainly Muslim north-eastern city of Maiduguri to attack Davido’s posters.

They pulled them down, tore them up and set fire to them, local media reported.

The video – a 45-second clip promoting a new song by Logos Olori who is signed to Davido’s record label – also caused anger on social media.

Some prominent Muslims called for an apology, prompting the Nigerian singer to delete the video from Instagram.

But Prof Soyinka hit out over the backlash, although admitting he had not seen the video because it had been withdrawn. In a letter to Nigeria’s Premium Times news, he said:

Dancing in front of a mosque cannot be read as an act of provocation or offence but as affirmation of the unified sensibility of the spiritual in human.

There are certain principles, histories, rights and responsibilities of artistic creativity that should not be smothered under emotional manipulation.

No apology is required, none should be offered.

The professor added that those who were offended should exercise their right to boycott Davido’s products.

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Journalist honours Soyinka’s invite 52 years later

Adwoa Agyeman — Thu, 29 Apr 2021 11:51:50 +0000

A Nigerian journalist has finally honoured an invitation to meet Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, after 52 years of waiting.

Oloye Lekan Alabi, a veteran journalist who has also worked as a press secretary for four state governors, met Prof Soyinka on Wednesday at his residence in Ogun state, Nigerian media reported.

Mr Alabi told journalists that he had been invited by the novelist and playwright in 1969.

He said he had been invited because of a letter he wrote to then President Yakubu Gowon criticising the government for imprisoning Prof Soyinka. He added that he had written another letter to the laureate, during his two years in prison, to show solidarity.

In appreciation, the professor had invited him soon after he was released from prison. He said while he initially kept the appointment, he was told the professor had been away.

“Today, 52 years after, it has pleased God that I honour the kind invitation extended to me in 1969 while I was a 19-year-old student of African Church Grammar School, Apata Ganga, Ibadan, by Prof (then Mr) Wole Soyinka,” the The Guardian newspaper quotes him as saying.

President Buhari not in charge of Nigeria – Wole Soyinka

Dennis Adu — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 12:54:14 +0000

Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, says he does not believe that President Muhammadu Buhari is in charge of Nigeria.

Soyinka made the comment on Thursday, June 4 in an interview with Plus TV Africa.

His comment was in reaction to an open letter written to President Buhari by Colonel Umar Dangiwa (rtd), a former military administrator of Kaduna state.

Dangiwa had accused the president of nepotism, especially as regards to his appointments.

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Professor Soyinka is insistent that President Buhari is not in charge of the country. Source: Original

Asked what his thoughts were on the open letter, Soyinka said:

“Well, my first reaction was thank goodness people like Umar who has a tendency to hit the nail hard and go to the point factually without self-interest.

“It struck me when I saw this and I was appalled. But I said to myself why should I be surprised that such an atrocity has been going on.

“I think those who are responsible for this criminal lopsidedness should be punished. It is not sufficient just to discuss it. It’s criminal.

“I have said this before. I don’t believe there is really anybody in charge in Aso Rock. I’m sorry to say this. I’ve been studying the trend over the past year and a half and I believe this president is not in charge of this nation, in so many aspects and directions. I’m convinced he’s not really and totally with it.

“It’s so serious. It is not the fact alone, we know the history of this. We know what it has caused the nation and we know it isn’t over yet. And you say are launching an enquiry. That’s not enough. This man is not in charge.”

Soyinka also decried the silence of the presidency on the issue raised by Dangiwa, adding that it creates a sense of impunity.

''Don’t treat Fulanis the way Jonathan treated Boko Haram'' Soyinka warns Buhari

Adwoa Agyeman — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 21:08:09 +0000

Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, has advised President Buhari not to treat the Fulani herdsmen’s hostility against Nigerians the way former President Goodluck Jonathan treated Boko Haram when they started their activities.
In a statement released today, Soyinka said Fulani herdsmen have declared war against Nigeria and that the Federal government must rise up fast to stop the war.
Recalling that after “a hideous massacre” perpetrated by the herdsmen in 2016, a security meeting was called and the cattle rearers “attended the meeting, according to reports, with AK47s and other weapons of mass intimidation visible under their garments.”
Soyinka said, “They were neither disarmed nor turned back. They freely admitted the killings but justified them by claims that they had lost their cattle to the host community.”
Reacting to comments made by the leadership of the herdsmen association that the some of the herdsmen kill On the comments that the herdsmen killings were in defence of their stolen cows, Soyinka wondered: “How do we assess a mental state that cannot distinguish between a stolen cow – which is always recoverable – and human life, which is not.
According to Soyinka, “Such are the monstrous beginnings of the culture of impunity. We are reaping, yet again, the consequences of such tolerance of the intolerable. Yes, there indeed the government is culpable, definitely guilty of ‘looking the other way’. Indeed, it must be held complicit.”
He said, “I am not aware that IPOB came anywhere close to this homicidal propensity and will to dominance before it was declared a terrorist organization. The international community rightly refused to go along with such an absurdity. The conduct of that movement, even at its most extreme, could by no means be reckoned as terrorism. By contrast, how do we categorise Myeti?” Villages have been depopulated far wider than those outside their operational zones can conceive. They swoop on sleeping settlements, kill and strut. They glory in their seeming supremacy.”