Autobiography: You’ve murdered sleep, Soyinka tells Obasanjo: By CHRIS IWARAH The challenges besetting former President Olusegun Obasanjo over the public presentation of his autobiography, My Watch, appear to be worsening. Just days after the former president was convicted by Justice Valentine Ashi for disobeying a court order restraining him from going ahead with the launch of the book, Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has served him notice to ready for a long-drawn battle over “his (Obasanjo’s) recent ‘literary’ intrusion on my peace.” In a reaction entitled: “Watch and Pray, Watch and Prey!” Soyinka said though he had since accepted Obasanjo as a pain that must be endured, the former president’s recent book had shown that his capacity for mischief was ceaseless. His words: “I had fully attuned myself to the fact that our Owu retiree soldier and prolific author is an infliction that those of us who share the same era and nation space must learn to endure. However, it does appear that there is no end to this individual’s capacity for infantile mischief, and for needless, mind-boggling provocations, such as his recent ‘literary’ intrusion on my peace… “I had a cordial exchange with Obasanjo over the phone recently – engineered by himself, his ground staff and/or a chance visitor – when I had cause to visit his Presidential Laundromat for the first time ever. “During that exchange, I complemented him on making some quite positive use of landed property that was acquired under morally dubious circumstances, and blatantly developed through a process that I denounced as ‘executive extortionism’. That obscene proceeding has certainly set a competitive precedent for impunity in President Jonathan’s recent fund-raising shindig… “I went so far as to engage him in light banter, stating that some of his lesser sins would be forgiven him for that creative conversion of the landscape – a conversation that he shortly afterwards delightedly shared with at least three mutual acquaintances. I promised a follow-up visit to view some mysterious rock script whose existence, he informed me, was uncovered by workers during ground clearing. The exchange was, in short, as good as ‘malice towards none’ that any polemicist could hope to contribute to the ongoing season of peace and goodwill. Obviously that visit will not now take place, any more than the pursuit of vague notions of some creative collaboration with his centre that began to play around my mind.” Alluding to interventions by mutual acquaintances to smoothen his relationship with Obasanjo, Soyinka said the former president had, however, proved “incorrigible.” He added: “The change in weather conditions sits quite well with me however, since we are both acquainted with the Yoruba proverb that goes: the child that swears his mother will not sleep must also prepare for a prolonged, sleepless infancy. So let it be with Okikiola, the overgrown child of circumstance.” Saying he was restraining himself from making full comments on My Watch because of the court order that had affected its accessibility, Soyinka, however, referred to a portion of the book allegedly attributed to him, describing Obasanjo as a career liar. He said: “For now, let me single out just one of the most glaring instances of this man’s compulsive career of lying, one sample that the media can readily check upon and use as a touchstone – if they do need one – in assessing our author’s multifaceted claims and commentaries on people and events. I refer here to the grotesque and personally insulting statement that he has attributed to me for some inscrutable but obviously diversionary reasons. In the process, this past Master of Mendacity brazenly implicates an innocent young man, Akin Osuntokun, who once served him as a special adviser. Instead of conferring dignity on a direct rebuttal of an ignoble fabrication, I shall simply make a personal, all-embracing attestation: I despise that species of humanity whose stock-in-trade is to concoct lies simply to score a point, win an argument, puff up his or her own ego, denigrate or attempt to destroy a fellow being. However, even within such deplorable species, a special pit of universal opprobrium is surely reserved for those who even lack the courage of their own lies, but must foist them on others. When an old man stuffs a lie into the throat of an age-mate of his own children – omo inu e! – We can only pity an irredeemable egomaniac whose dotage is headed for twilight disgrace.” He added: “Could he have mistaken the Christian exhortation –Watch and Pray’ for his private inclination to ‘Watch and Prey’? This is a seasoned predator on others’ achievements – he preys on their names, their characters, their motivations, their true lives, preys on gossip and preys on facts, preys on contributions to collective undertakings… even preys on their identities, substituting his own where possible.” Original link Read More goo.gl/V1DKwS (y) ✍comment ☏share
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 01:04:14 +0000
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