I never attacked Igbo over election… whoever believes I did is a moron- Soyinka denies castigating Igbo-Speaking Biafrans. Aka Ikenga reacts

I never attacked Igbo over election… whoever believes I did is a moron- Soyinka denies castigating Ndigbo

Professor Wole Soyinka has denied comments attributed to him concerning the voting pattern of the Igbo in the March 28 presidential election. The report, published by TheCable, alleged that he accused the Igbo of voting according to their “stomachs”. In an angry response to the story, Soyinka said in a statement: “I have just read a statement attributed to me on something called The CABLE, a news outlet, evidently one of the Internet infestations.

My lecture at the Hutchins Centre, Harvard University, was video recorded. “Anyone who believes what I am alleged to have said must be a moron – repeat, a moron. It is demeaning, sickening and boring to have to deal with these cowards who cannot fight their own battles but must fasten their imbecilic pronouncements on others. “Only the mentally retarded will credit this comment attributed to me regarding the Ndigbo voting pattern in the last elections. I strongly suspect the author of this despicable concoction, and may make a further statement, once the source is verified.”

Cable had reported that the Nobel Laureate and foremost social critic, Wole Soyinka, is of the opinion that Nigerians of Igbo extraction are the only people in the country who can be predicted accurately. Delivering a lecture titled ‘Predicting Nigeria, Electoral Ironies’ at the Harvard University Hutchins Centre for African & African American Research, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, the revered scholar described people from that part of the country as “greedy”. “Igbos remained unrepentant and resolute towards their strategic objective of secession at worst; or a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction at best,” he said at the lecture, which held on April 29. 

“The climax of MASSOB’s war against the Nigerian state was the call for sit-ins and civil disobedience that shut down markets and public services, as Igbos stayed at home in a symbolic gesture to assert Biafran independence. The call was honoured by governors in the two principal Ibo states, though without fanfare. 

“The Igbos are probably the only group of Nigerians that you can predict with great accuracy whom they will vote for in an election, because they tend to put their votes where their stomachs take them; suffering as it were, from incurable money-mindedness, as they would stop at nothing in their quest for personal financial gain.” Commenting on the result of Nigeria’s presidential election, 

Soyinka said the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan would have been “disastrous”, as Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s president-elect, is better option. “Muhammadu Buhari was the better of the two evils as the incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan had been an unmitigated disaster and failure,” he said. 

“It was a painful decision to tell people to vote Buhari, but the country needed a new beginning. I was more against Jonathan, than I was pro-Buhari. “Nothing is more unworthy of leadership than to degrade a system by which one attains fulfillment, and this is what the nation witnessed time and time again under Jonathan, who was increasingly becoming intolerant of opposition in an escalating streak of impunity and authoritarian madness, which was most blatant and unconscionable. “The ‘militricians’ – soldiers turned politicians in power – aren’t looking for excellence; their civilian cohorts are worse. Short cuts and how to circumvent the system for the profit of a few are the norm of governance. Those who do honest work are derided as lacking the skill to fit it. Ironically, things haven’t quite changed a bit after 16 years of democracy in the country.”

Based on Soyinka's refutation of the story accredited to him, The Cable probably embellished the story in a typical Yoruba style to always find a way to cast Igbo-speaking Biafrans in bad light. The Biafran therefore expects Soyinka to release the video of his lecturer for wider scrutiny, and take The Cable on for libelous publication that has maligned his reputation. Clearly Soyinka is frantic to dissociate himself from  this thoughtless speech against the Biafran people.

Meanwhile, Aka Ikenga, the think tank of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has berated Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, for allegedly demonising Ndigbo in a recent lecture at Harvard University in the United States of America.

The group in a statement issued this morning in Lagos and signed by its President, Chief Goddy Uwazurike, “noted with dismay the demonisation of Ndigbo by a group of people who have nothing positive to contribute to the peaceful conclusion of the Presidential election.”

Continuing, Aka Ikenga said: “Ndigbo voted freely and without any fear or favour. To attribute it to greed or stomach infrastructure or even love of money is to carry on this malicious stigmatisation to a ridiculous level.

“Ekiti voted for PDP and it was called stomach infrastructure but not Osun that voted APC. Amaechi of Rivers and close friend of Prof Wole Soyinka lost his state and all South-East and South-South states and we are all categorised as people who put their votes where their stomach is and are suffering from incurable money mindedness.

“The statement from Soyinka is a sign that the quality of gun totting Wole of Ibadan has gone into oblivion! It is now replaced by that of a man who must speak even when he has nothing to say. Truly, the quality has died and is now replaced by something else. Wole Soyinka of old would have campaigned for people to vote freely.

“How come Ndigbo are the only people singled out by Soyinka? There are over 400 tribes in Nigeria but Soyinka did not single out any of them except Ndigbo for vilification in US. The election is over but we urge the purveyors of disunity to let peace reign.”