Soyinka Fumes: I’m Embarrassed Occupying Same Nation Space With Some ‘Imbeciles’

FUNSHO AROGUNDADE

 

Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka on Monday has expressed dismay over the obscene and unwarranted attacks of his person by some Nigerians over the election of Donald Trump as United States president and the Green Card issues, saying he felt embarrassed occupying same “nation space with these imbeciles”.

Visibly angry Soyinka, speaking at a press conference at the Freedom Park, Lagos, came hard on those Nigerians who he said are taking the opportunity of the anonymity of the internet to take over the country.

“I’m embarrassed that I’m occupying the same nation space with these imbeciles. Nigerians should realise how ridiculous they make themselves. The Nigerian personal is gaining notoriety all over the world. That is why Trump latched on the existing narrative,” Soyinka retorted.

According to the renowned playwright, “Barbarians are taking the opportunity of the anonymity of the internet to take over the country. What is the business of any stupid Nigerian to open his or her mouth to challenge my right? Did you get the Green Card for me?

“The arrogance of Nigerians is overwhelming. Where does this arrogance come from? What right do they have to tell me that I have no right to take a decision in a particular way? What right do they have? Who are you giving orders? I didn’t take orders from Sani Abacha, what right do they have to give me order?”

Soyinka described the whole controversy as a “theatre of the absurd,” and said he was puzzled that it was something even worth the fuss it generated.

“Really I am puzzled. I hope to leave here today with a little knowledge. I don’t know what the hassle is all about. If I decide I want to leave the United States, and in a particular way, that is my business and not the business of the millipedes of internet who claw out at any excuse and leap-flying in their trade.

“I don’t know what the excitation is? Why do Nigerians tend to wail louder than the bereaved? What is your business? I am addressing those illiterates who feel that they have to make themselves heard and have to express opinion about everything whether it concerns them or not and resort to vulgar abuse and insult simply because they are scared just because one person is saying I have had enough of the state. I just want to take a walk. This is simply a personal issue.

Soyinka, who told the French news agency, AFP, in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Friday that he had destroyed the card, said he was shocked that people were asking him to present video evidence showing him destroying the card.

“It appears to me that this thing called ‘Green Card’ is more important than human beings. People react in their own ways and I don’t go fighting them for it. Expression is not only by words but also by actions. When I take such actions, I don’t want people on behalf of whom we took these actions to express themselves in vulgar manner.

The unhappy octogenarian, who said Trump is not really his problem but the rhetoric that got him there especially against Nigerians, however promised that on 20 January, 2017, the day the president-elect would be sworn-in as President in Washington, he would hold a Private Wake to mark the death of common sense in Nigeria.

“I’m going to hold a private wake on inauguration day not to mourn the decision of Americans in the choice of president but to mourn the death of Nigeria common sense,” he said.

Soyinka also said he might move his foundation’s residency out of Nigeria as a response to the entire episode.

“Something has to give. There will be certain actions I might take or refuse to take as a result of this. There has to be a significant event on my side in response to the obscene and unwarranted attacks.

“I’m going to move the residency of my foundation out of the country. I have already started it. It is my property. I am moving my foundation out of Nigeria if the board agrees. If you like, you can follow me to where I am and put me in your blog because I move my foundation out of Nigeria,” he said.

Soyinka also said he was considering taking a second “Wolexit”.

“Wolexit” is a term coined by the literary luminary after the “Brexit” referendum in the United Kingdom. Soyinka had earlier used the term to describe his decision to quit the United States.

He, however, said he has not decided the nature the “Wolexit 2” may take as it could either be internal (which would see him withdrawing to his Abeokuta sanctuary, Ijegba), external, or mixed.

He said “exit takes different form, you can exit internally or externally. It is possible I exit into the autonomous republic of Ijegba, but certainly something must give way. There will be some action which I will take or refuse to take because of this incident which really should come to an end.

“I have had enough of this. There will be very gradual and accelerated exit from the public intervention; from giving the commitments I have made as part of general public service.