For Five Days, Jonathan Didn’t Know Morocco Has Withdrawn Its Ambassador from Nigeria – Soyinka
Professor Wole Soyinka painted the sorry picture of a
helpless President Jonathan who is ostensibly
surrounded by aides holding him captive.
Soyinka said until he told Jonathan about what was
turning out to be an embarrassing diplomatic spat
between Morocco and Nigeria, the President didn't
know that the Moroccans had recalled their
ambassador from Nigeria over a telephone
conversation that never was. The Moroccan royal
palace said the king had declined a request for a
phone conversation, while Nigeria insisted that the
two leaders had spoken at length. Nigeria later
backed down and admitted the conversation did not
happen, wrote the Guardian.
"Here is a situation where a president did not even
know that a foreign country, a friendly country, had
withdrawn its ambassador from Nigeria. I was the
one who told him. He jumped up as if his seat was on
fire. I couldn't believe it … He was not aware that for
about five days the media had been absolutely
hysterical with this embarrassing situation between
the two. It was that very night that he made a public
statement about it for the first time", Soyinka recalls.
"So when I say that there is a force around, I know
what I'm talking about. There is a very sinister force
in control and it is that sinister cabal which is
responsible for caging him in and showing him what
they think he should know about and keeping away
from him things which are not in their interest, and
this for me is the most dangerous situation that any
nation can be in."
The man of letters also said the ongoing general
elections have become a shamble and the build up,
an embarrassing spectacle.
"Most expensive, most prodigal, wasteful, senseless,
I mean really insensitive in terms of what people live
on in this country," Soyinka continued. "This was the
real naira-dollar extravaganza, spent on just
subverting, shall we say, the natural choices of
people. Just money instead of argument, instead of
position statements.
"And of course the sponsoring of violence in various
places, in addition to this festive atmosphere in
which every corner, every pillar, every electric pole is
adorned with one candidate or the other, many of
them in poses which remind one of Nollywood.
"I get a feeling sometimes that some of these
candidates were just locked in their wardrobes and
they were told: 'Just take selfies in there and don't
come out until you've finished the entire wardrobe.'
All kinds of postures. Just ridiculous. It has been an
embarrassing exercise in terms of electioneering,"
Soyinka said.
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