Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, has told Nigerians to beware of an unnamed former President who he accused to telling Nigerians to elect ‘Lucifer from Hell’
The award-winning writer, poet, and playwright made the assertion in Abuja on Wednesday, January 9, 2019, while speaking at the symposium on fake news organised by the BBC.
While speaking at the symposium, Soyinka said the former President’s sudden support for someone he has demonized for years should be treated with caution by those who mean well for the country.
He said, “We have got to develop a very healthy skepticism. If someone in a position of power for eight years has lectured a nation for eight years and after that continued year after year to continue to direct the minds of a whole nation in one direction only saying, ‘This is Lucifer from hell’ for eight years in office and several more years out of office saying, ‘This is Lucifer’ and then one day, he changed his left hand and says, ‘Behold your redeemer’, which of the two is fake news?”
Although no names were mentioned, it is believed that his remarks were directed at former President Olusegun Obasanjo who fell out with the PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar while the pair were the country’s number 1 and 2 men between 1999 and 2007.
Over the years and even in his autobiography, “My Watch”, Obasanjo accused Atiku of having a “shadowy background, a propensity to corruption, a tendency to disloyalty, an inability to stay and stick to the truth all the time, a propensity for poor judgment, a belief and reliance on marabouts, a lack of transparency, a trust in money to buy his way out of all issues and a readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, propriety, truth and national interest for self and selfish interest.”
The pair have however made peace in October 2018 with Obasanjo publicly supporting Atiku’s bid for the presidency in the February 16, 2019, election.
