A group called Lagos Collectives has criticised Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, labelling him a partisan in the politics of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).
In a statement signed by chairman of the group, Professor Tejumade Akitoye-Rhodes, the group said the professor of literature has by his recent utterances, especially on the Rivers crisis proved himself a partisan in ACN instead of being a unifier, adding that never has the professor raised his voice against any ACN policies, even when they are against the people but that he has opted to be a selective critic.
“We observe with sobering contemplation and cautionary moral the sad withdrawal of Professor Wole Soyinka from the once iconic emblem of a reflective arbitrational leader to a predictable partisan voice, now eager to rush to the defense of his compromised puppeteers without cautionary wisdom, without contemplative rectitude.
“Professor Soyinka’s recent diatribe about the unfolding issues in Rivers state hardly portrays the supposed man of learning as a wizened voice with balanced and unhurried equipoise whose intervention should be borne upon the toga of truth, authenticity, candor and genuine pacifying logic of an African elder”, the group said, adding that Soyinka appears to be too much in a hurry to apportion blame, to draw inferences without solid testimony, to stigmatize without verifiable adjudication.
“Perhaps stampeded by some veiled compromising bias, the hurried scholar jumped into the fray, nullifying rational comportment, indifferent to the necessary neutral canvass without which the truth will not be known, without which peace cannot be achieved”, Lagos Collectives said.
The group however praised the Senate for not making decision in a hurry.
“ Nigerian Senate, in the loftiness of its wisdom is presently occupying that sane perch of neutrality in order to first calm the fray, heal the ruptured and broken landscape, unify the factions and move the state forward. This is the role Professor Soyinka ought to be playing now rather than the untidy latchtment to divisive partisan advocacy.
“ Indeed the old Professor cannot pretend a grandstanding in some puristic position anymore. Alas he is a partisan of the fray, an eager articulator and ally of the Iragbiji clique. Never once have we heard the old Professor raised his voice against the depraved usurpers in Lagos.Despite egregious rape of the Lagosian treasury and the periodical use of violence by the Iragbiji gang in Lagos state, the good professor struts along, grimly indifferent, muted without a word. Surely the professor’s national intervention is rather selective, tainted, weak, without puristic candor. He should be ignored”, the group said.
