Nigeria’s First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, yesterday fired back at Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, for castigating her over the ongoing crisis in the Rivers State House of Assembly.
Mrs. Jonathan in a communiqué by her spokesman, Ayo Osinlu, expressed disappointment over Soyinka’s outburst.
According to her, the literary icon betrayed the moral duty that expected him, as a respected member of the society, to carefully consider all shades of issues that inform his opinions on any matter.
Soyinka had at a press conference on Thursday asked President Goodluck Jonathan to call his wife to order over what he described as the First Lady’s overbearing influence and heating up of the Rivers’ polity.
She described Soyinka as an embarrassment to his teeming fans and admirers with his unguarded statement.
The statement reads in part, “Unfortunately, Soyinka betrayed moral duty in his recent diatribe against Mrs. Patience Jonathan.
“Of course, this would not be the first time he would reach out against the First Lady, usually from self-righteously indignant lecterns.
“In this particular instance, his verdict was that Mrs. Jonathan was ‘stoking the crisis currently rocking her home state of Rivers…’, and thereupon asked Mr. President to caution his wife.
“The good, old Prof. reminds one of the truth that indeed, most of the giants on the street are men of like passions like everyone else. Worse still, most of them are actually standing on clay feet and would fail the test of a gentle push.
“Otherwise, who would have believed that the social, civil, constitutional and sundry rights crusader, Prof. Wole Soyinka would maintain a safe distance from the heart of an activity that is a potential threat to the peace, security and safety of the people of a state, then collect exaggerated stories and jaundiced perspectives from familiar propagandists and character assassins, and promptly summon the media to a “state of the nation” address.
“It’s an embarrassment to his throng of admirers and followers, that a sage of Prof. Soyinka’s status, who used to be a gauge of public morality in this nation, would lend himself to a propaganda of high drive, to save a Governor who was elected to launch into a river without applicable survival skills.”
She said, Soyinka was only contributing to the project when he claimed that she was Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s problem.
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