Wole Soyinka Speaks - Obasanjo Remains One Of Nigeria’s Biggest Problems

Professor Wole Soyinka, Femi Falana, a senior lawyer in Nigeria, have reportedly described former president Olusegun Obasanjo as one of the country’s major problems.

The two prominent Nigerians said Obasanjo was not a saviour as some would believe. Daily Trust reports that the two top Nigerians attacked Obasanjo at a panel discussion alongside the editorial chairman of The Nation, Sam Omatseye, at a book launch in Lagos.

The book: Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes? Gani’s Unfinished Business was written by Soyinka in memory of late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, the Lagos based human rights lawyer.

Daily Trust reports that Soyinka said he was moved to write the book which he dubbed: “Interventions VIII” because of the tissues of lies found in Obasanjo’s three-volume autobiography: My watch. “This is a man who will never take responsibility for anything.

And what I even found most unacceptable is for the same person when such a critic of successive governments now offers himself as a sort of saviour. “The letter he wrote that was meant to be a letter bomb ended up being a su*cide bomb,” he said describing Obasanjo as someone who usually studies events, looks at the directions things are going before jumping in to take credit for what others laboured for.

According to Soyinka, Nigeria must learn to do away with Obasanjo with young people taking over the country. On his part, Falana said Obasanjo was known for disobedience of the Supreme Court orders.

“Since the amalgamation of northern and southern protectorates in 1914, no administration has ever treated with brazenness, the way the administration of Obasanjo treated judgement of the Supreme Court.

“In the case between the federal government and the Lagos state government, the Supreme Court said it was illegal that the local government allocations to the state were withheld. “It ordered the payment.

But Obasanjo refused to comply. “That was why the payment was the first act of the Yar’Adua administration when it came in,” Falana said.