Source: http://thesummary.com.ng/index.php/national-news/item/692-igbos-are-greedy-and-predictable-people-soyinka
Proffessor Wole Soyinka while delivering a lecture titled, ‘Predicting Nigeria, Electoral Ironies’
at the Harvard University Hutchins Centre for African and African
American Research in the United States yesterday has described Igbos as “predictable” and “greedy” following their choice to vote en masse for Jonathan in the just concluded general election.
“Because they tend to put their votes where their stomachs take
them; suffering as it were, from incurable money-mindedness, as they
would stop at nothing in their quest for personal financial gain"
He also said during the lecture that he chose Major-General Muhammdu Buhari (rtd) over President Goodluck Jonathan because he was the “better of the two evils," as the incumbent president was an “unmitigated disaster and failure”.
Defending his support for the former military dictator, the foremost dramatist said on a personal level, it was a “painful decision to tell people to vote Buhari, but the country needed a new beginning. I was more against Jonathan, than I was pro-Buhari”.
He also said during the lecture that he chose Major-General Muhammdu Buhari (rtd) over President Goodluck Jonathan because he was the “better of the two evils," as the incumbent president was an “unmitigated disaster and failure”.
Defending his support for the former military dictator, the foremost dramatist said on a personal level, it was a “painful decision to tell people to vote Buhari, but the country needed a new beginning. I was more against Jonathan, than I was pro-Buhari”.
He said even after Jonathan personally confided in him (Soyinka) that he
made a mistake by surrounding himself with the wrong people, “the president continued to surprise us in ways that very few could have conjectured”.
“If Nigeria must have a new lease of life, religion must cease to be a
defining factor or must play a less destructive role. And that is what
the constitution of Nigeria expects it to be,” he also said.
Admitting that the patriotism and sacrifice of the soldiers who have reversed the tide against Boko Haram was the reference for all if Nigeria would be safe and if each Nigerian would be his brother’s or sister’s keeper, Soyinka hailed the singular patriotism of Dr. Stella Ameyo Adadevoh, whose sacrificial act of preventing the Liberian Ebola carrier, Patrick Sawyer, from unleashing the dreaded virus on all of Nigeria, saved the country from a health catastrophe beyond imagination, saying she personified the best of Nigeria and the best in the Nigerian.
“Her life is a profile in courage and a good place to begin in forging a national character if Nigeria would have a future,” he said.
Contrasting Adadevoh’s example with that of first lady, Patience Jonathan, Soyinka strongly condemned the first lady syndrome and their pervasive influence on Nigerian politics.
Admitting that the patriotism and sacrifice of the soldiers who have reversed the tide against Boko Haram was the reference for all if Nigeria would be safe and if each Nigerian would be his brother’s or sister’s keeper, Soyinka hailed the singular patriotism of Dr. Stella Ameyo Adadevoh, whose sacrificial act of preventing the Liberian Ebola carrier, Patrick Sawyer, from unleashing the dreaded virus on all of Nigeria, saved the country from a health catastrophe beyond imagination, saying she personified the best of Nigeria and the best in the Nigerian.
“Her life is a profile in courage and a good place to begin in forging a national character if Nigeria would have a future,” he said.
Contrasting Adadevoh’s example with that of first lady, Patience Jonathan, Soyinka strongly condemned the first lady syndrome and their pervasive influence on Nigerian politics.
Read more from Professor Soyinka's speech HERE.
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