Nobel laureate, Professor
Wole Soyinka has said he intends to keep quiet for now about the performance of
the Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Soyinka said this
while responding to questions in an interview session by a team from The NEWS
magazine in commemoration of his 90th birthday.
The team had asked Soyinka when he would fulfil the promise he made about
speaking on the performance of President Tinubu after after the administration
marked one year in office. The literary
giant made the promise during his visit to Tinubu in Lagos late last year. However, the Nobel laureate told the team from TheNews magazine that he
knew that there are many people waiting for him to speak about the Tinubu’s
administration just for the sake of jumping at his throat, but he will
disappoint them by keeping quiet for now.
Soyinka said, “First of all, understand that I don’t live on an alarm clock. And
I hope nobody is so naive as to think that on the dot of one year I am going to
speak. That’s number one.
“Number two, you asked that question nicely: Do I have anything to say and
so on, which is the way it should be. I know that there are some people out there,
who are waiting for Wole Soyinka to speak. Whatever he says, they are going to
jump at him.
“If you read my Baiting Igbophobia, I narrate a conversation, which was
transmitted to me, in which these people sent one of their marching orders to
somebody that he should go and deal with me. The man said you know I don’t
understand what Soyinka says’’. They told him, Who says you should
understand? Any time he opens his mouth, jump in his throat. That’s the way
they put it. I’m quoting them. And my response to that, of course, is that I
have swallowed more toxic nonsense in my life, anybody who jumps in my throat I
would swallow and excrete it in the rear end, and go back to my business
normally!