NOBEL Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, yesterday advised the Federal Government to jettison its plan to name a street after him in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
He said he would only take the offer if government cancelled the streets named after late former Head of State, General Sani Abacha.
Soyinka, who made the rejection at a press conference in Lagos, also said if he accepted the offer to name a street after him in Abuja, former President of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) and fellow writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa, killed by Abacha, would be shedding tears in his grave.
He recalled that sometime during the regime of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Minister of the FCT, Abuja, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, held a conference on corruption which he attended.
"I asked El-Rufai, you are talking about corruption and you named a street after Abacha who was himself corrupt and through the street, we all came to the venue of this conference. He promised to change the name of Abacha from the street. Till day, Abacha still has a street named after him in Abuja. Is there any sense in accepting a street after we. No.
"As long as no symbolic statement has been made about changing the name of his (Abacha’s) street, I do not want to be honoured in Abuja; I am satisfied with the one name after me in my village. I reject the offer in totality," Soyinka stated.
The 1986 winner of the Noble Prize for Literature also said he was rejecting the plan to name a street after him in Abuja because Abacha’s loots and those of his cronies were heavily documented and recovered by General Abdulsalmi Abubakar and Obasanjo.
He said for dazing to hang Ogoni civil rights activist/writer, Saro-Wiwa after a Kangaro trail, accepting the offer would mean offending Saro-Wiwa in his grave.
Soyinka also spoke on the controversial Presidential Library of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, saying it was illegally established in a corrupt manner.
Plans, according to him, are on to persecute him on account of the library project and his other misdeeds while in office.
He also reflected on what he described unjust demotion of former Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu by the Police Service Commission (PSC) and the Inspector-General of Police, saying it was good that he has zone to court to challenge the illegality.
Soyinka commended Ribadu for the gallantry displayed by him in fighting corruption in
Nigeria and advised Nigerians to give his successor, Mrs Farida Waziri a chance to prove himself.
"I believe in giving people chance. She should be given a chance to fight the war against corruption," he stated.
Speaking on the historic victory of the Democratic Candidate, Barack Obama in the United States Presidential election, Soyinka said it is a very big lesson for Africa and Nigeria because he was elected irrespective of religious and ethnic creed which did not affect his chances.
"Barack Obama’s election as the fist black president of the United States is a slap on those who believe that leadership depends on race and religion. With Obama’s victory, America has gatecrashed into the third millennium," he stressed
DAILY CHAMPION
Friday Olokor
Thursday November 05, 2008
