Soyinka Attacks An Ex-President For Supporting A Candidate He Once Called A “Devil”

Prof. Wole Soyinka, highly celebrated writer and Nobel Laureate, has called out a former President who pretends to be the conscience of the nation, but is out to mislead Nigerians.

The playwright, while speaking at a symposium on fake news organised by BBC News, in Abuja on Wednesday, asked Nigerians to be wary of the former President in question.

Soyinka, who was a panelist at the event themed ‘Nigeria 2019: Countering Fake News’, admonished traditional media not to toll the path of electronic media by shunning fake news.

He said that Nigerians should express doubt in choice of the former leader to support a certain person he had for years called a devil, only for him to clamour for support for him.

Soyinka said, “We have got to develop a very healthy skepticism. If someone in a position of power for eight years has lectured a nation for eight years and after that, continued year after year to continue to direct the minds of a whole nation in one direction, only saying, ‘This is Lucifer from hell’ for eight years in office and several more years out of office saying, ‘This is Lucifer’ and then one day he changed and says: ‘Behold your redeemer;’ which of the two is fake news?”