Airline Seat Saga: I Can’t Justify My Action – Soyinka

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on Saturday admitted to being wrong for wrongly identifying and sitting on a seat allocated to someone else on a flight.

Former governor aspirant Tonye Cole had revealed how a young man refused to give up his seat for the playwright during an international flight.

Reacting in a statement on Saturday, Wole Soyinka said he cannot wrongly identify an airline seat number like millions of travellers do all the time, and all over the world, and then attempt to consolidate the error in any form, through act, word, or gesture.

He urged airlines to impose fines on passengers who wrongly took seat onboarding and join proceeds from such initiative with donations from passengers to tackle worthy causes globally, especially health-related case.

“Those who permit themselves to be persuaded, even for one second that I, Wole Soyinka, having wrongly identified a seat number like millions of travellers all the time, and all over the world, would then attempt to consolidate the error in any form, through act, word, or gesture, qualify to be the first beneficiaries of this vastly improved humanitarian policy,” Soyinka said.