It is a joke on us my sister, Osita Udenson. But the truth is that this whole Soyinka-Sadiq-Soyinkas defenders-Abachas defenders-Satirist thing leaves me chuckling. May be because I am not the best fan of Soyinka. But that is my weakness. I acknowledge that hes a great Nigerian story teller, but for me Late Achebe was better and more useful. Others may argue that they are different. Im not a literary expert, but that is my personal opinion. It does not help that somehow whenever Soyinka opens his mouth to talk about the challenges that my region is facing, he comes off, in my opinion, as truly ignorant of the real issues, condescending towards the people and full of himself. Well, he is a Nobel laureate, so he is entitled to be full of himself. I cannot begrudge him that. Lol. As for Abacha and the flak he continues to receive after death, it is foolhardy to expect any less from the people that were suppressed during his regime. I was a young, university kid then, but I remember very well how Abacha handled the opposition. Initially, the opposition had national colors in favour of Abiolas June 12 mandate. But when many of Abiolas comrades betrayed him and chose to serve with the government, the opposition contracted to mainly Yoruba from the South West. For that reason, Abacha focused on them and did his unholy deed to keep his grip on power and retain control. So how can they forget and forgive? Even Sadiq cannot be oblivious of that. But for many Nigerians, Abacha was not that bad, especially considering that all the famous PTF achievements were recorded in that administration. For the people from Kano where Abacha came from, like my little self, Abachas contributions included the Kano ring road that is proving to be more and more blessings with every passing day. But personally, my grudge with Abacha is that he jailed my godfather, who is also a Hausa-Fulani from the north, for simply telling him the truth. Indeed he even jailed the godfather of my godfather! So I cannot celebrate Abacha, neither can I celebrate Soyinka. If Soyinka takes Abacha to the cleaners, I will stifle a laugh because Abacha owes me, may God rest his soul. If Abachas son dusts the floor with Soyinka, in defense of his fathers honour, I can only chuckle because I see it, with all due respect, as a deserved lesson in humility. The worst part, for me, is not even in the news. I dont care if Soyinka, his benefactor IBB, OBJ and Atiku attended that jamboree or not. But why did General Buhari go to that programme? Im the first to defend the peoples General in everything he does. Unfortunately, in this, I have nothing to say. I have read the explanations that he was tired of being accused of rejecting to be part of Govts solutions. But I think, in this, he lost a wonderful opportunity to further distance himself from the crowd of Nigerias undistinguished elites. The sombre mood of the nation demanded it. But then, I had to find a way of reminding myself that Buhari, being human, can also err. He can make mistakes. So I found a way of shutting my trap, until today. Now, was it not Soyinka that said Abacha was a better economist than OBJ? Was OBJ not of the Odi and Zaki Biam fame? Was Soyinka rejecting to share that platform with OBJ too? I can laugh about that, like I said Im not a fan of the man. The man Im a fan of is dead. His name is Abdulganiyu Fawehinmi. And in all the jamboree misadventure, his consistency was what brightened the day. He was consistent even from his grave. His family proved it, admirably. And thats a hero to defend for all time. Not Soyinka. Not Abacha. In my opinion, the link below contains the best response to Sadiq written by Okechukwu Ofili. Not the abuse by the horde. allafrica/stories/201403100345.html?aa_source=slideout
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 11:29:34 +0000
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