Fraudulent Academic Claims: Wole Soyinka exposed
Joseph D Dahip
This is a little too personal for my liking. I do not trust
Soyinka. Infact I do not like the man, but this is a little too deep for
any one. I would like to concentrate on his current mess ups, which I
might add, are a lot. But anything that happened so many years ago has no
bearing on what we do today. This is not to say that I am softening my
position on him. I am not doing that at all, I am just saying that this
is too far gone to be unearthed. Well, I can see one reason where
unearthing something like this might be of some use to someone, that is to
dispove something that he Sayinka has said recently. If not, then I think
this is not a news item worth covering at this day and time.
I am not saying this or directing this at Mohammed Salisu, for he
is just a messenger. I am directing it more at Gibbs or whatever his name
is. And also I am directing this at Bolaji Aluko whom I am sure will try
to say something stupid in his hopes of protecting Soyinka or in his
defense of Soyinka which he is wont to do. This article does not deserve
a response in any way as a defense for Soyinka. If he failed his exams or
whatever grade he received at that university, he has gone to show that he
is capable of doing things right in literature writing. For that, I
wonder what Gibbs was trying to show here. Unless this was in some way a
response to some lies that Soyinka has told recently (which let me add
here that Soyinka is very capable of), this interview is totally uncalled
for. Enough said.
jd
On Fri, 27 Nov 1998, Mohammed Salisu wrote:
> TODAY NEWSPAPER, AUGUST 18-24, 1996
>
> Fraudulent Academic Claims: Wole Soyinka exposed
>
> By Our Correspondent
>
> The claim by Professor Wole Soyinka that he obtained First Class bachelors degree in
> English Literature from Leeds University has been challenged.
>
> Instead, what the Nobel Laureate actually obtained from Leeds was a Second Class degree.
> This startling revelation was made by Professor James Gibbs who has closely monitored the
> activities of former Leeds students in English literature.
>
> Professor Gibbs remarked that in arriving at the facts he has on Wole Soyinka's academic
> records, "I have drawn on a variety of sources including contemporary Leeds publications,
> archival material, Soyinka's work and interviews I had with him".
>
> In a 1983 interview with Mike Awoyinfa published by Sunday Concord of February 27,
> Wole Soyinka claimed that after his first degree in Leeds he did not feel like going for any
> postgraduate studies saying "I was bored, I felt that I had grasped enough of what I wanted
> from my literature studies. So I felt I wanted to get out and write. I believe that the student
> period of one's existence should be short and intense … so after three years I felt I should go
> out."
>
> However, Professor Gibbs told TODAY in an exclusive interview in Accra, Ghana, that the
> claim was also a blatant lie since Professor Soyinka had duly completed his MA programme
> in English literature but failed in the Autumn of 1957.
>
> Professor Gibbs referred TODAY to his latest publication on Wole Soyinka entitled
> TALKING WITH PAPER which contained details of the Nobel Laureate's academic and
> private life while a student at Leeds University.
>
> The publication, made available to TODAY, states that Soyinka had applied for an MA
> programme at Leeds from an address given as "P.O. Box 192, Abeokuta" to work on English:
> American Literature (1920s), Eugene O'Neill and Shakespeare, revealing further that he was
> offered an admission along with Barbara Dixon whom he (Soyinka) was later to make
> pregnant and then abandon.
>
> Professor Gibbs found Soyinka's claims to people especially to Sunday Concord impossible
> to reconcile as, according to him, "Soyinka did register for, sit for the exams and submit the
> long essay for an MA…" claiming that Wole Soyinka was merely rewriting his own life
> history through Mike Awoyinfa and the Sunday Concord.
>
> Gibbs went further to reveal that Soyinka "sat papers on Shakespeare, the Novel, the period
> 1660-1668 and American Literature; he submitted an essay on O'Neill, and he presented
> himself for an oral exam", in 1958.
>
> However, Professor James Gibbs said, "his work did not satisfy the examiners: Kettle and
> Jeffares (internal), Professor Sutherland of London University and Professor D. S. Welland of
> Manchester (external)".
>
> "It seems they realised that the candidate (Soyinka) was ill and in a state of considerable
> nervous tension; it is on record that if they had known how sick he was, he would not have
> been allowed to sit the papers. That was that and Wole Soyinka had to wait until 1973 for a
> postgraduate qualification from the (same) University of Leeds."
>
> The revealing publication also indicated that one of his Professors, Prof. A. N. Jeffares, who
> had, in fact written to the Nigerian government to offer Soyinka a scholarship for another BA
> after his first one, had adjudged Soyinka's MA "uneven: while in places it was penetrating, it
> was flawed by cloudy terminology".
>
> Professor Jeffares was said to have been of the opinion that Soyinka was someone "who
> would benefit from close supervision…", aware perhaps that the man, who had founded the
> Pyrates Confraternity before fleeing Ibadan, was also into alcoholism and drugs.
>
> For, according to Professor Gibbs' account, "under the influence of drugs" in an examination
> in Leeds, Soyinka thought he had completed one of his papers and before the time allowed
> was up, he "rose noisily to leave the room only to discover on turning over the paper that
> there were more questions and that he had only a little time in which to answer them", an
> incident which the author said Soyinka later tried to underplay by claiming that "after staying
> up late drinking coffee", he lost his composure the following day.
>
> According to the publication, Professor Gibbs maintained that from the correspondence on
> file from the BBC written archives, in May 1958, Soyinka was in London taking increasingly
> regular employment at the Corporation. Barbara, who was then a couple of months pregnant,
> had given up her research and had moved south with Soyinka, where she was working as a
> teacher the same as Soyinka did for a time.
>
> Speaking further to TODAY, Professor James Gibbs revealed that he has published other
> works on Wole Soyinka, citing particularly the one he entitled TRIAL OF WOLE
> SOYINKA, where he revealed how Soyinka had held up the radio studio in Ibadan and
> forced the announcer to broadcast an unauthorised tape at gunpoint.
>
> Professor Gibbs told our reporter that he had interviewed Soyinka several times before the
> work but claimed that the Nobel Laureate started haunting and insulting him after the
> publications as, according to him, the book had given some unpalatable insights into
> Soyinka's riotous life-style.
>
> According to the British Professor, whose wife still teaches at the Legon University in
> Ghana, Soyinka was particularly irked by his revelation that Soyinka had impregnated and
> abandoned his first love, Barbara in Leeds, before going on "to marry another woman from
> his native place whom he also abandoned before his present wife, Folake, who was his
> student at university."
>
> Professor Gibbs, who told our reporter that Soyinka recently wrote him a stinker, also
> claimed that "everything about Soyinka seems to revolve around his guts".
>
> In the revealing publication the author debunked the much vaunted claim that Wole Soyinka
> had been victimised by his lecturers at the University College, Ibadan, by awarding him a
> Third Class or even a pass degree which he allegedly tore up and proceeded to Leeds where
> he allegedly bagged a first class degree.
>
> However, observers said that Wole Soyinka's unbalanced nervous state led to his violence-
> prone life style which has been given vent through his founding of the secret cult - Pyrates
> Confraternity - which has metamorphosed into today's violent campus cult that threatens the
> sanity and future of the nation's educational institutions.
>
> They also claim that the present actions of Wole Soyinka, which include his sponsorship of
> NALICON which is an organisation that canvasses for funds and support from mal-informed
> western countries who believe that NALICON is a pro-democracy and human rights
> organisation being promoted by a balanced Nobelist without knowing that Wole Soyinka is in
> reality funding terrorism, are attributable to his cracked personality through his opposition to
> constituted authorities.
>
> According to the author, Professor Soyinka's sojourn in the West had inflicted in him Anglo-
> modernist mannerism, which has made him an agent of neo-colonialism. He stated that it was
> as a result of this mannerism that Soyinka always focuses his attention on the west.
>
> Professor Gibbs, who is a Bristol based professor of Literature, also revealed that Soyinka,
> the attention seeker, had attracted more interest than he could possibly have hoped for.
> He said that through cultivating the habit of "talking with paper" Soyinka who arrived
> London in 1954 as a student gave his profession as a writer in November 1959 before he
> returned to Nigeria.
>
> Professor Gibbs, who has carefully studied Professor Wole Soyinka's private and literary life
> for over 30 years, said that there is more than meets the eye in the personality and often
> vaunted claims about Wole Soyinka's so-called academic brilliance.
>
>
> All comments should be directed to Today Newspaper at
> toda...@compuserve.com, to...@ndirect.co.uk
>
Kehinde A. Oyeleke
I guess I forgot to thank you for that very nice piece asking people to
leave the Abacha's alone. Highly patriotic stuff, bro.
It is sad that in spite of Abacha spending the whole of his life fighting
for Nigeria, people could be so ungrateful to him. I can't believe
people are so ungrateful to a family that patriotically stole some N75
billion of their money.
Now, Salisu, what do you say to our forming an organization to be known
as: Youth Earnestly Defend Abacha's Family (YEDAF)? Would you be willing
to lead this patriotic effort? Please, let's leave the Soyinka's issue
to Mukhtar's capable hands, and step up to this urgent assignment.
Thanks, Sali.
Kehinde
On Fri, 27 Nov 1998 12:34:49 +0000 (GMT) Mohammed Salisu
<m.sa...@lancaster.ac.uk> writes:
>TODAY NEWSPAPER, AUGUST 18-24, 1996
>
>Fraudulent Academic Claims: Wole Soyinka exposed
>
>By Our Correspondent
>
>The claim by Professor Wole Soyinka that he obtained First Class
>bachelor=
>s degree in=20
>English Literature from Leeds University has been challenged.
>
>Instead, what the Nobel Laureate actually obtained from Leeds was a
>Secon=
>d Class degree.=20
>This startling revelation was made by Professor James Gibbs who has
>close=
>ly monitored the=20
>activities of former Leeds students in English literature.
>
>Professor Gibbs remarked that in arriving at the facts he has on Wole
>Soy=
>inka's academic=20
>records, "I have drawn on a variety of sources including contemporary
>Lee=
>ds publications,=20
>archival material, Soyinka's work and interviews I had with him".
>
>In a 1983 interview with Mike Awoyinfa published by Sunday Concord of
>Feb=
>ruary 27,=20
>Wole Soyinka claimed that after his first degree in Leeds he did not
>feel=
> like going for any=20
>postgraduate studies saying "I was bored, I felt that I had grasped
>enoug=
>h of what I wanted=20
>from my literature studies. So I felt I wanted to get out and write. I
>be=
>lieve that the student=20
>period of one's existence should be short and intense =85 so after
>three =
>years I felt I should go=20
>out."
>
>However, Professor Gibbs told TODAY in an exclusive interview in
>Accra, G=
>hana, that the=20
>claim was also a blatant lie since Professor Soyinka had duly
>completed h=
>is MA programme=20
>in English literature but failed in the Autumn of 1957.
>
>Professor Gibbs referred TODAY to his latest publication on Wole
>Soyinka =
>entitled=20
>TALKING WITH PAPER which contained details of the Nobel Laureate's
>academ=
>ic and=20
>private life while a student at Leeds University.
>
>The publication, made available to TODAY, states that Soyinka had
>applied=
> for an MA=20
>programme at Leeds from an address given as "P.O. Box 192, Abeokuta"
>to w=
>ork on English:=20
>American Literature (1920s), Eugene O'Neill and Shakespeare,
>revealing f=
>urther that he was=20
>offered an admission along with Barbara Dixon whom he (Soyinka) was
>later=
> to make=20
>pregnant and then abandon.
>
>Professor Gibbs found Soyinka's claims to people especially to Sunday
>Con=
>cord impossible=20
>to reconcile as, according to him, "Soyinka did register for, sit for
>the=
> exams and submit the=20
>long essay for an MA=85" claiming that Wole Soyinka was merely
>rewriting =
>his own life=20
>history through Mike Awoyinfa and the Sunday Concord.
>
>Gibbs went further to reveal that Soyinka "sat papers on Shakespeare,
>the=
> Novel, the period=20
>1660-1668 and American Literature; he submitted an essay on O'Neill,
>and =
>he presented=20
>himself for an oral exam", in 1958.
>
>However, Professor James Gibbs said, "his work did not satisfy the
>examin=
>ers: Kettle and=20
>Jeffares (internal), Professor Sutherland of London University and
>Profes=
>sor D. S. Welland of=20
>Manchester (external)".
>
>"It seems they realised that the candidate (Soyinka) was ill and in a
>sta=
>te of considerable=20
>nervous tension; it is on record that if they had known how sick he
>was, =
>he would not have=20
>been allowed to sit the papers. That was that and Wole Soyinka had to
>wai=
>t until 1973 for a=20
>postgraduate qualification from the (same) University of Leeds."
>
>The revealing publication also indicated that one of his Professors,
>Prof=
>. A. N. Jeffares, who=20
>had, in fact written to the Nigerian government to offer Soyinka a
>schola=
>rship for another BA=20
>after his first one, had adjudged Soyinka's MA "uneven: while in
>places i=
>t was penetrating, it=20
>was flawed by cloudy terminology".
>
>Professor Jeffares was said to have been of the opinion that Soyinka
>was =
>someone "who=20
>would benefit from close supervision=85", aware perhaps that the man,
>who=
> had founded the=20
>Pyrates Confraternity before fleeing Ibadan, was also into alcoholism
>and=
> drugs.
>
>For, according to Professor Gibbs' account, "under the influence of
>drugs=
>" in an examination=20
>in Leeds, Soyinka thought he had completed one of his papers and
>before t=
>he time allowed=20
>was up, he "rose noisily to leave the room only to discover on turning
>ov=
>er the paper that=20
>there were more questions and that he had only a little time in which
>to =
>answer them", an=20
>incident which the author said Soyinka later tried to underplay by
>claimi=
>ng that "after staying=20
>up late drinking coffee", he lost his composure the following day.
>
>According to the publication, Professor Gibbs maintained that from the
>co=
>rrespondence on=20
>file from the BBC written archives, in May 1958, Soyinka was in London
>ta=
>king increasingly=20
>regular employment at the Corporation. Barbara, who was then a couple
>of =
>months pregnant,=20
>had given up her research and had moved south with Soyinka, where she
>was=
> working as a=20
>teacher the same as Soyinka did for a time.
>
>Speaking further to TODAY, Professor James Gibbs revealed that he has
>pub=
>lished other=20
>works on Wole Soyinka, citing particularly the one he entitled TRIAL
>OF W=
>OLE=20
>SOYINKA, where he revealed how Soyinka had held up the radio studio in
>Ib=
>adan and=20
>forced the announcer to broadcast an unauthorised tape at gunpoint.
>
>Professor Gibbs told our reporter that he had interviewed Soyinka
>several=
> times before the=20
>work but claimed that the Nobel Laureate started haunting and
>insulting h=
>im after the=20
>publications as, according to him, the book had given some unpalatable
>in=
>sights into=20
>Soyinka's riotous life-style.
>
>According to the British Professor, whose wife still teaches at the
>Lego=
>n University in=20
>Ghana, Soyinka was particularly irked by his revelation that Soyinka
>had =
>impregnated and=20
>abandoned his first love, Barbara in Leeds, before going on "to marry
>ano=
>ther woman from=20
>his native place whom he also abandoned before his present wife,
>Folake, =
>who was his=20
>student at university."
>
>Professor Gibbs, who told our reporter that Soyinka recently wrote him
>a =
>stinker, also=20
>claimed that "everything about Soyinka seems to revolve around his
>guts".
>
>In the revealing publication the author debunked the much vaunted
>claim t=
>hat Wole Soyinka=20
>had been victimised by his lecturers at the University College,
>Ibadan, b=
>y awarding him a=20
>Third Class or even a pass degree which he allegedly tore up and
>proceede=
>d to Leeds where=20
>he allegedly bagged a first class degree.
>
>However, observers said that Wole Soyinka's unbalanced nervous state
>led =
>to his violence-
>prone life style which has been given vent through his founding of the
>se=
>cret cult - Pyrates=20
>Confraternity - which has metamorphosed into today's violent campus
>cult =
>that threatens the=20
>sanity and future of the nation's educational institutions.
>
>They also claim that the present actions of Wole Soyinka, which
>include h=
>is sponsorship of=20
>NALICON which is an organisation that canvasses for funds and support
>fro=
>m mal-informed=20
>western countries who believe that NALICON is a pro-democracy and
>human r=
>ights=20
>organisation being promoted by a balanced Nobelist without knowing
>that W=
>ole Soyinka is in=20
>reality funding terrorism, are attributable to his cracked personality
>th=
>rough his opposition to=20
>constituted authorities.
>
>According to the author, Professor Soyinka's sojourn in the West had
>infl=
>icted in him Anglo-
>modernist mannerism, which has made him an agent of neo-colonialism.
>He s=
>tated that it was=20
>as a result of this mannerism that Soyinka always focuses his
>attention o=
>n the west.
>
>Professor Gibbs, who is a Bristol based professor of Literature, also
>rev=
>ealed that Soyinka,=20
>the attention seeker, had attracted more interest than he could
>possibly =
>have hoped for.
>He said that through cultivating the habit of "talking with paper"
>Soyink=
>a who arrived=20
>London in 1954 as a student gave his profession as a writer in
>November 1=
>959 before he=20
>returned to Nigeria.
>
>Professor Gibbs, who has carefully studied Professor Wole Soyinka's
>priva=
>te and literary life=20
>for over 30 years, said that there is more than meets the eye in the
>pers=
>onality and often=20
>vaunted claims about Wole Soyinka's so-called academic brilliance.
>
>
>All comments should be directed to Today Newspaper at
>toda...@compuserve.com, to...@ndirect.co.uk
>
>
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111
Na Oyibo una dey listen to now.
If the facts are proven, so be it. For Nigerians to dey listen to Oyibo try to
bring down our only Nobel Laureate is Shameful and the hell to those trying to
destroy the man.
You do not have to agree with his politics, but for God's sake, kick the
f...... Oyibo's ass !!!!!!!!!!
HRH., PRINCE OF ORA
abu
TODAY NEWSPAPER, AUGUST 18-24, 1996
Fraudulent Academic Claims: Wole Soyinka exposed
By Our Correspondent
The claim by Professor Wole Soyinka that he obtained First Class
bachelors degree in
English Literature from Leeds University has been challenged.
Instead, what the Nobel Laureate actually obtained from Leeds was a
Second Class degree.
This startling revelation was made by Professor James Gibbs who has
closely monitored the
activities of former Leeds students in English literature.
Professor Gibbs remarked that in arriving at the facts he has on Wole
Soyinka's academic
records, "I have drawn on a variety of sources including contemporary
Leeds publications,
archival material, Soyinka's work and interviews I had with him".
In a 1983 interview with Mike Awoyinfa published by Sunday Concord of
February 27,
Wole Soyinka claimed that after his first degree in Leeds he did not
feel like going for any
postgraduate studies saying "I was bored, I felt that I had grasped
enough of what I wanted
from my literature studies. So I felt I wanted to get out and write. I
believe that the student
period of one's existence should be short and intense … so after three
years I felt I should go
out."
However, Professor Gibbs told TODAY in an exclusive interview in Accra,
Ghana, that the
claim was also a blatant lie since Professor Soyinka had duly completed
his MA programme
in English literature but failed in the Autumn of 1957.
Professor Gibbs referred TODAY to his latest publication on Wole Soyinka
entitled
TALKING WITH PAPER which contained details of the Nobel Laureate's
academic and
private life while a student at Leeds University.
The publication, made available to TODAY, states that Soyinka had
applied for an MA
programme at Leeds from an address given as "P.O. Box 192, Abeokuta" to
work on English:
American Literature (1920s), Eugene O'Neill and Shakespeare, revealing
further that he was
offered an admission along with Barbara Dixon whom he (Soyinka) was
later to make
pregnant and then abandon.
Professor Gibbs found Soyinka's claims to people especially to Sunday
Concord impossible
to reconcile as, according to him, "Soyinka did register for, sit for
the exams and submit the
long essay for an MA…" claiming that Wole Soyinka was merely rewriting
his own life
history through Mike Awoyinfa and the Sunday Concord.
Gibbs went further to reveal that Soyinka "sat papers on Shakespeare,
the Novel, the period
1660-1668 and American Literature; he submitted an essay on O'Neill, and
he presented
himself for an oral exam", in 1958.
However, Professor James Gibbs said, "his work did not satisfy the
examiners: Kettle and
Jeffares (internal), Professor Sutherland of London University and
Professor D. S. Welland of
Manchester (external)".
"It seems they realised that the candidate (Soyinka) was ill and in a
state of considerable
nervous tension; it is on record that if they had known how sick he was,
he would not have
been allowed to sit the papers. That was that and Wole Soyinka had to
wait until 1973 for a
postgraduate qualification from the (same) University of Leeds."
The revealing publication also indicated that one of his Professors,
Prof. A. N. Jeffares, who
had, in fact written to the Nigerian government to offer Soyinka a
scholarship for another BA
after his first one, had adjudged Soyinka's MA "uneven: while in places
it was penetrating, it
was flawed by cloudy terminology".
Professor Jeffares was said to have been of the opinion that Soyinka was
someone "who
would benefit from close supervision…", aware perhaps that the man, who
had founded the
Pyrates Confraternity before fleeing Ibadan, was also into alcoholism
and drugs.
For, according to Professor Gibbs' account, "under the influence of
drugs" in an examination
in Leeds, Soyinka thought he had completed one of his papers and before
the time allowed
was up, he "rose noisily to leave the room only to discover on turning
over the paper that
there were more questions and that he had only a little time in which to
answer them", an
incident which the author said Soyinka later tried to underplay by
claiming that "after staying
up late drinking coffee", he lost his composure the following day.
According to the publication, Professor Gibbs maintained that from the
correspondence on
file from the BBC written archives, in May 1958, Soyinka was in London
taking increasingly
regular employment at the Corporation. Barbara, who was then a couple of
months pregnant,
had given up her research and had moved south with Soyinka, where she
was working as a
teacher the same as Soyinka did for a time.
Speaking further to TODAY, Professor James Gibbs revealed that he has
published other
works on Wole Soyinka, citing particularly the one he entitled TRIAL OF
WOLE
SOYINKA, where he revealed how Soyinka had held up the radio studio in
Ibadan and
forced the announcer to broadcast an unauthorised tape at gunpoint.
Professor Gibbs told our reporter that he had interviewed Soyinka
several times before the
work but claimed that the Nobel Laureate started haunting and insulting
him after the
publications as, according to him, the book had given some unpalatable
insights into
Soyinka's riotous life-style.
According to the British Professor, whose wife still teaches at the
Legon University in
Ghana, Soyinka was particularly irked by his revelation that Soyinka had
impregnated and
abandoned his first love, Barbara in Leeds, before going on "to marry
another woman from
his native place whom he also abandoned before his present wife, Folake,
who was his
student at university."
Professor Gibbs, who told our reporter that Soyinka recently wrote him a
stinker, also
claimed that "everything about Soyinka seems to revolve around his
guts".
In the revealing publication the author debunked the much vaunted claim
that Wole Soyinka
had been victimised by his lecturers at the University College, Ibadan,
by awarding him a
Third Class or even a pass degree which he allegedly tore up and
proceeded to Leeds where
he allegedly bagged a first class degree.
However, observers said that Wole Soyinka's unbalanced nervous state led
to his violence-
prone life style which has been given vent through his founding of the
secret cult - Pyrates
Confraternity - which has metamorphosed into today's violent campus cult
that threatens the
sanity and future of the nation's educational institutions.
They also claim that the present actions of Wole Soyinka, which include
his sponsorship of
NALICON which is an organisation that canvasses for funds and support
from mal-informed
western countries who believe that NALICON is a pro-democracy and human
rights
organisation being promoted by a balanced Nobelist without knowing that
Wole Soyinka is in
reality funding terrorism, are attributable to his cracked personality
through his opposition to
constituted authorities.
According to the author, Professor Soyinka's sojourn in the West had
inflicted in him Anglo-
modernist mannerism, which has made him an agent of neo-colonialism. He
stated that it was
as a result of this mannerism that Soyinka always focuses his attention
on the west.
Professor Gibbs, who is a Bristol based professor of Literature, also
revealed that Soyinka,
the attention seeker, had attracted more interest than he could possibly
have hoped for.
He said that through cultivating the habit of "talking with paper"
Soyinka who arrived
London in 1954 as a student gave his profession as a writer in November
1959 before he
returned to Nigeria.
Professor Gibbs, who has carefully studied Professor Wole Soyinka's
private and literary life
for over 30 years, said that there is more than meets the eye in the
personality and often
Big Daddy X
Abu,
What an absolute nonsense you wrote. Sheer waste of space. With all the
issues ahead of us you waste our time in investigating and destroying one of
our most noble of Nigerians. You support the tarnishing of one of our
natural resources, our children.
Before you start a clandestine investigation of me and how many kids I have
out of wedlock, let me reassure you that I have many skeletons in my closet,
and I'm proud of each one.
Wole Soyinka is very qualified at writing literatures, he is one of the best
in the world. NO QUESTION ABOUT IT!
Wole Soyinka does not belong in politics, and yes Wole Soyinka may have
suffered some permanent damages as a consequence of what he has gone
through. He should live politics to realists. Yes He also may have become
a tribalist.
You can question his short comings, and his political views, but my Man quit
the personal probing and attacks, it does not get us anywhere as a people.
Next time you feel like posting, tell us what about his positions on the
state and future of Nigeria you disagree with. Tell us your vision for the
future of Nigeria. But god sake don't perpetuate this divisive tribalism
junk.
Good day.
Tilewa Osifeso
RWeaver315
nobody, seeking glory for themselves on the backs of an African who has
achieved greatness. No one can take away the fact that Soyinka has educated us
through the arts - through his "talking on paper" and I applaud him with or
without the paper degree. His playwriting is refreshing and gives me joy that
Africans are seen in more ways than the ones portrayed by Athol Fugard. As far
as his personal life....well....we should not condemn him or anyone for what
they do in their personal lives. We don't know the facts. And it's none of
our business anyway.
Haruna, Abdulrazaq (ABDH)
Actions shall be judged according to intention. I do think Today Newspaper
took a trip to a rubbish heap.
Cheers,
AbdulRazaq.
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By Our Correspondent
period of one's existence should be short and intense ... so after
long essay for an MA..." claiming that Wole Soyinka was merely
would benefit from close supervision...", aware perhaps that the