By Mike Ojoobanikan
When Prof. Wole Soyinka, the Nobel laureate, who suffers no fools gladly opens his mouth, he releases verbal howitzer that makes his target dive for cover. That was exactly what happened on Tuesday 2 August 2018 when he accused former president Olusegun Obasanjo of sabotaging the efforts of the late Chief Bola Ige, one time minister in charge of power.
Soyinka addressed the media during the official launch of his Interventions VIII series, titled: “Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes? (Who keeps Watch over the Watchmen?), Gani’s Unfinished Business,” held at the Freedom Park, Lagos Island area of Lagos.
As Soyinka revealed: “I was here when Ige moved his office to Lagos to solve the power problem of Nigeria. He deliberately sabotaged the efforts of the late minister. Before Ige took office, he summoned a group of experts and mapped out strategy to transform the power sector. But he was sabotaged from the inside because he begged me to persuade Obasanjo to remove Sulaiman Bello from office.
“This was the man he believed was used to sabotage his efforts and the consequence we are still suffering today. Obasanjo protected the saboteurs of the power sector and that is why I challenged him to engage me publicly.
“I don’t remember the good he has done. It will be very difficult to find one. I can’t remember one at this moment. There are many groups emerging with very good manifesto and it is a long time between now and next year. The field is widely open.”
Soyinka also took a dig at the Federal Government on insecurity in the land, saying: “There are acts of mis-governance under this administration. There are unforced errors and acts that are considered being stupid; failure to secure lives; languages of self-excusing which were condemned in the past but resurfacing all over the place.”
