Be a lady: Wole Soyinka and Femi Falana jointly criticise Dame Patience Jonathan over Rivers state Posted By TheScoop on July 11, 2013 Today, at a press conference on the state of the nation, Nigerian Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka and lawyer, Femi Falana, criticised Nigeria’s first lady, Patience Jonathan, accusing her of “being used by her husband” to destabilize Rivers State. Soyinka described Dame Jonathan as “a mere domestic appendage of power” who depends on state security apparatus to intimidate. In very strong words, he said, “Be a lady before being a First Lady. In fact you can’t be a First Lady without first being a lady. Is she the first 1st Lady we’ve had? The vulgarity has become intolerable. We’ve now reached the bottom of obscenity…” The press conference which was supposed to be on the Wole Soyinka Center Media Lecture Series coming up Saturday 13, July condemned the Rivers State House of Assembly crisis dwelt mostly on the Rivers crisis. Soyinka came down hard on Evans Bipi, who was elected by 5 out of 32 assembly members as speaker on Tuesday. He said to the journalists in the hall, “Stop treating the clown as an equal of the elected speaker. If you must refer to him as speaker, use small letters, put in inverted commas and add self declared.” On his part, Falana called for the removal of the Rivers State police commissioner Joseph Mbu who has been accused of being a partisan player in the Rivers crisis. “Police Commissioner, Mbu should be removed and sanctioned by the Police Service Commission,” he said. Falana also declared that “the next time Patience Jonathan blocks road in any part of the country, we are going to court.” He drew attention to the difference in the vote cast by the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) and the lawmakers that impeached speaker Amachree on Tuesday, saying that “every school kid knows that 19 is greater than 16. Everybody knows that 27 is greater than 5.” He said that Nigerians must put a stop to the madness and tell the current administration of President Jonathan that “we’re not a conquered people.”
Posted on: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 19:30:23 +0000