No. 37, Lower Erejuwa Road,
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Warri,
Delta State.
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21st May 2012.
SOYINKA’S MERRY DANCE
We love Prof. Wole Soyinka, acclaimed Nobel Laureate and unrepentant non-conformist. We love his twinkle-twinkle little stars but sometimes wonder why the ebullient academic delights in controversies that stray him to the unintended and often land him in rippling muddy waters. We still cannot fathom why the critic will reduce himself to a busybody only to get himself hurt most times. The latest flood of invectives on Chief James Ibori by the bard, in his keynote address at the 2nd South-South Economic Summit in Asaba, Delta State, as expressed in his paper titled How We Can Accomplish Nigeria’s Mission, was clearly an attempt to demonise the ex-governor. The invectives were contained in the 29th and 30th paragraphs.
‘Do we need to point out that as a nation, we are covered with shame that it took an external court of justice of the former colonial masters, to finally put an end to the costly shenanigans of another of your brother governors, one who held anti-corruption forces at bay, led them in a merry dance all the way to Dubai until he was plucked out of his imagined sanctuary?’ (29th paragraph.)
By this, the poet laid bare his ignorance of the dynamics of law and the issues before the court as well as the reasons for the plea-bargain and the constraining conspiracy of the ruling government in the judicial proceedings.
Chief Ibori’s defense team have emphatically stated that they are appealing the sentence as it was against the plea-bargain deal. Chief Ibori never pleaded guilty to corruption charges, neither was he found guilty of them, which justified the not-guilty judgement passed here in Nigeria. He only pleaded guilty to money laundering charges, which ironically should have been premised on corruption. Chief Ibori’s guilty plea was rooted on the grounds that, ‘with the corruption charges removed because they could not be proved beyond any reasonable doubt, the Police stayed with money laundry charges, to be proved by nothing but inference – the convincing of a jury of white persons.’ (Chief Ibori’s press statement after pleading guilty.)
Our Nobel Laureate clearly failed to acknowledge the reliance of the prosecutors on a jury of white persons, which would have inferred: If not through corruption, how else could a black man had amassed such wealth!
The fact remains that Chief Ibori is just a victim of international power politics, who was branded as a threat to Western business interests, and roped in with money laundry charges and convicted on that ground, in a bid to put him under check.
On the evaporation of a sense of community resulting from the alleged poor administration of justice, Prof. Wole Soyinka perhaps had forgotten so soon that it was his Pirate Confraternity that gave rise to predators in our ivory towers and institutions of government where cultism rule the roost. In a nation where the principal administrators are cult members, where non-cultists are discriminated against and judgements given in favour of fellow cultists, what sense of community can be enjoyed? With the scores of deaths we record from our tertiary institutions everyday, can we clearly absolve the No. 1. cultist of the seeds of hatred and violence he sowed many years ago? Can we pronounce him innocent of a generation of youths who are wasted by this harbinger of disaster?
We are aware of Mr. Professor’s special conception of activism, where tribalism and personal interests are confused as acts of patriotism dedicated to the unwavering pursuit of nation building. No doubt, his apparent reference to Chief Ibori is an attempt to provoke controversy with friends of the ex-governor and other prominent Nigerians to gain relevance, as the styled mention of Ibori’s case was an attempt at shadow-boxing.
It is clear from his address that Prof. Soyinka is just being a passionate glutton for statesmanship, as the issues he presented have continued to raise some contradictions in the social reality in which he operates. These contradictions bare their face even as he wades through a deluge of pretences by the day.
Do we need to remind the world that in spite of Chief M.K.O. Abiola’s horrendous machinations in ITT, as reported in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, all of 17th August 1980, the International Herald Tribune of the next day, 18th August (all American newspapers), and in two Nigerian newspapers two days later: New Nigerian and Daily sketch; our professor had the courage to call on Mr. President to immortalise the chief on the premise that he contributed to sports development in Nigeria? Contemporary political and legal historians find no difficulty in concluding that Chief Abiola was never brought to trial in 1980 over revelations of his involvement in large-scale fraud because, perhaps, ‘only predators roam the streets, making their own laws of survival as they proceed’ (to quote the Nobel Laureate in his address!).
The point presently is that Chief Ibori was tried and found innocent here in Nigeria, and had to plead guilty to phoney charges of money laundry overseas for political reasons. Now, could we ask our Nobel Laureate why Chief Abiola was never brought to trial!
In shame societies, men of honour do not allow the reign of filthy lucre to diminish their firmly built reputation. They present a lifestyle that makes mockery of crass materialism, and revere honour and not greed and ill-gotten wealth. In those societies, social critics probe the sources of campaign funds of their would-be leaders and often denounce leaders who channel the proceeds of their loot to vie for public offices. Better still, they reject contributions made from stolen wealth and hardly place value on them. And their criticism is never guided by tribalism or nepotism. Why then has the poet decided to eulogise a likely guilty Chief Abiola and rubbish an innocent Chief Ibori before the world! The answer is not far-fetched – Chief lbori is not an Egba man! But then, our Nobel Laureate would have taken a cue from Afro-beat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti who, despite his affiliations with Chief Abiola, was frank enough to protest by tagging ITT as International Thief Thief.
During the hey day of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, former Governor of Lagos state, we all witnessed how the Pira6te No. 1. threw decency to the winds to protest late Chief Gani Fawehinmi’s allegation of certificate forgery on the ex-governor, as well as his fierce battle against Festus Keyamo, when the lawyer revealed the criminal antecedents of Sen. Tokunbo Afikuyomi, who claimed he filled Tinubu’s forms. While the controversy raged, Mr. Moral Exemplar never wrote a piece or presented a paper to condemn the illegality, rather he was the de facto image-maker of the government. Today, we are faced with this hater of truth who is masquerading as a symbol of justice. Prof. Wole Soyinka, where is thy honour?
Every well-informed and objective Nigerian acknowledges the conspiracy behind Chief Ibori’s conviction and sentencing. He might have been presented as a criminal to the eyes of the world, but here in Delta State, his innocence is not in doubt. The man remains a leader amongst men, as memories of him still resonate in the streets, the many lives he touched, the souls he lifted, and the infrastructure and institutions he built. Chief Ibori was that leader who knows workers must earn good wages. He was that governor who never owed salaries. He is that governor that empowers the local contractor and pays students bursary. It is no wonder that even in prison, his wishes are respected and not even the unguarded vituperations of Prof. Soyinka can change it.
As we await the appeal against the sentencing and its outcome, we proclaim that Chief James Onanefe Ibori lives in us!
Barr. Edwin Okoro
Ag. Secretary
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