• Blasts bloggers, says they’re millipedes of internet

By Damiete Braide

Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka has debunked the rumour that he will tear his American Green Card during the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States of America on January 20, 2017. Soyinka said that rather than tear the Green Card, he would hold a private funeral on the death of common sense in Nigeria.
He said this yesterday at a press conference titled: “The green god and the idolatry of mutants,” at Freedom Park, Lagos.
The literary icon said: “I will begin a second Wolexit when I finish with this one, which is literally over. Sometimes, I am embarrassed to consider that I occupy the same nation’s space with some imbecile and I wonder what am I doing with the same space with them.
“To stop the confusion, the kind of exist that I am talking about is that there will be a gradual to accelerated exit from public interventions or commitments that I have made as part of general public service which I have done all my life.
“I watched the handing over procedure between President Barrack Obama and Donald Trump and I really felt very sorry for Obama. Also, America had their Thanksgiving Day (November 24) and I was in America then, which made me to conclude at what happened and I wasn’t happy with it because I have had enough of this.  “I am puzzled, I don’t know what the farce is all about. If I decide that I want to leave United States of America and I want to leave there in a particular way, that is my business and not the business of the millipedes of the internet, who crawl out at any excuse and leave slime in their trail. I don’t know what the excitation is.
“As the saying goes, why do Nigerians tend to wail louder than the bereaved? What is their business? Today, I am addressing those illiterates (bloggers) who feel that they have to make themselves heard or express their opinion on everything and anything whether it is concerns them or not.
“They resolve to vulgar abuse simply because they are scared because one person is saying publicly, I have had enough of their stay and under this condition, I just want to take a walk. It is a personal obligation and I take that walk, the way that I am customed to do it.”
Soyinka recalled that some years ago, himself with the late Tai Solarin and other activists staged a walk from the headquarters of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), to lead protesters from Yaba to Race Course for a final rally:
“I suspected what would happen, so I took along with me, my national honour (medal) and ribbon. Although, the rally didn’t take place due to the presence of armed policemen and soldiers in armoured cars, they harassed us with these vehicles which they should have used in fighting the enemies. They separated Tai Solarin and myself from the crowd and they said that we can walk by one side of the road and they insisted that we must not be followed by protesters.
“When we got to Yaba, we found a barrier and we couldn’t have that rally. So, I brought my national honours, threw them on the ground and stamped on them. I remember that I was later interviewed by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), that day, if it was true that I threw my national honours and stamped on them and I said yes. I told them that I would have done something else on it but I would be accused of indecent exposure.
“People can express themselves in different ways and I am not going to speak about Trump because he is not my business. Since he has been elected, let him do his work and we should just watch whether our worst fears will be effected or not.
“The issue is that, it was the electorates that voted him in and it was against the black peoples, specifically Nigerians which I responded to it and that is my business. People react in their own different ways and I don’t go and attack them and say how dare you do this or that.
“We have worked very hard to ensure that the least insignificant person in our society enjoys freedom of expression, which is not only words but also in their actions which I had earlier illustrated with the Yaba to Lagos example.”
Soyinka added that freedom of expression is what you make of it and what is germane of it, is one’s temperament: “If I decide to take such kind of action, I don’t want people whom we fought for the right of freedom of expression to start all kinds of vulgar and stupid commentary.
“Standing at Freedom Park on the Island, there is a symbolic tree which we inaugurated. Right here, anybody can come here and express himself/herself and should be exempted from prosecution. Even though, I can say what I want to say in any part in the world at any time.”
He noted that George Orwell wrote in one of his books, Animal Farm that “all animals are equal but some are more equal than others. It looks to me as if the Green Card is more important than human beings and so even people like me cannot express ourselves again. There is something wrong with this and I think Barbarians can take over this country, using their anonymity to write rubbish and question the rights of people like me to express myself.
“People should be grateful to Donald Trump. Like I said, I should not take my exit from the United States but maybe it should be Nigeria where I should exit from because if people on behalf of whom one has struggled all one’s life can descend to be so slavish in mentality as questioning the rights of their champions to free expression then all hope is lost.
“If I was ready to abandon the Green Card some years ago, so what is the difference today? I have travelled a lot and I have been advised to reduce the rate at which I travel. If somebody now gives me an opportunity to cut down my travels on a platter of gold, thank you very much and I appreciate it.
“So, what is the business of any stupid Nigerian to open his/her mouth to challenge my rights that I am leaving? Did you get the Green Card for me? What is your business? Do I eat in your house? The arrogance of some Nigerians is really disturbing.
“I don’t interfere with you so how dare you interfere with me and on what grounds? What is the authority? Where did this arrogance come from that people can sit down that they have any right to take any particular step in my own particular way, since when did this begin?”
Soyinka recalled that he never took orders from the late Sani Abacha: “Then how can I take orders from miscreants like them? I urge such people to have some mutual respect, tolerance and the spirit of inquiry before they make comments.”