Professor Wole Soyinka has reacted to a statement by Rivers State Information Commissioner , Dr Austin
Tam-George that the state would demand refund from Soyinka if he
collected cash from the N82million spent by former governor Rotimi
Amaechi on a dinner to honour him.'
'
In a statement , the Nobel Laureate called on governor Wike to not only
engage the EFCC to probe him, but also call the Interpol to probe all
international functions where he has been honored ..Read statement below
Those who flounder in the sewage of corruption
By Wole Soyinka
This
morning, I saw only the headlines in one or two print media regarding
the 80th Birthday dinner to which I was hosted by the former governor of
Rivers State, the Honorable Rotimi Amechi, now Minister of Aviation. I
ignored them. It was not, and remains not my business to probe into the
catering and logistical implications of the hundreds of institutions and
governments all over the world to whom I acknowledge an immense debt of
unsolicited recognition over the years.
Since then however, I
have learnt of some unsavory statements by the insecure incumbent of the
Rivers State government Lodge. These included a loose invitation to
anti-crime agencies to investigate the potential crime of being honoured
through any occasion. The unprecedented call by this governor is
prescient of a warning I recounted in my recent pamphlet publication THE
REPUBLIC OF LIARS, and was taken from my address to an anti-corruption
global conference that took place in Tunisia two years ago.
Those words
were: CORRUPTION STRIKES BACK. In this ongoing instance, that expression
translates most vividly as “Those who are neck deep in the sewage of
corruption ensure that they splatter sewage in all possible and
improbable directions.”'
I do however fully support the Wikeleaks
call for multi-directional probes. I recommend further that he involve
the services of INTERPOL to guarantee its extension to all international
organisations and governments to whom I owe uncountable events of
recognition – including birthday luncheons, dinners, cultural receptions
and events of real, fictitious, or simply opportunistic flavoring – to
which I have submitted myself.
The descent to this present level
of abominable distractions makes one truly despair. It is one that even I
did not envisage when I warned – CORRUPTION STRIKES BACK! Whether it
brings honour or dishonour to the nation is another matter – I am
saddened, but indifferent.
EFCC and company – over to you! You all know where I live.
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