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Why I jailed Soyinka, by Gowon
KOLA ADEPOJU,
Abeokuta
FORMER Head of State, Gen. Yakubu
Gowon weekend, explained why he jailed Prof. Wole Soyinka for two years and four
months while in office.
Gowon revisited Soyinka’s incarceration 33 years after at the
state banquet organised by the Ogun State Government to mark Soyinka’s 70th
birthday anniversary at the Valley View Hall of Government House, Abeokuta.
Addressing personalities who graced the
banquet, Gen. Gowon who was decked in Babariga with a cap to match, said
he sent Soyinka to jail because he was a security risk to his government.
He recalled that apart from security
reports which informed them that the then young university lecturer was planning
to overthrow his government, his utterances did not help matters either.
Based on the fear, Gen. Gowon who said he
had to put him away and puncture the attendant fear by jailing him for two years
and four months.
According to him, "people came to me and
reported that he (Soyinka) wanted to change the government and the Head of
State. So his effort was becoming too dangerous for the set up. Therefore he was
incarcerated for two years and four months," he stated.
Gen. Gowon said he did not jail him "out
of dislike or hatred. But we thought if we left him alone something funny might
happen.
"There was no time that his (Soyinka’s)
life was in danger, but because the policy of my government at that time would
not tolerate any situation like that."
Responding Soyinka recalled how he fled
the country by crossing the border through motorbike otherwise known as Okada
when the former Head of State the late Gen. Sani Abacha was hunting him.
Soyinka who, thereafter presented the
Okada rider who rescued him and thanked the state government and those
present at the occasion for honouring him.
Earlier, Governor Gbenga Daniel described
Soyinka as "the General, who leads his army to the battle ground, who has never
joined the league of fair-weather fighters and who prefers to fire salvos while
relaxing in their castles abroad."
Meanwhile Gov. Bola Tinubu of Lagos State
has said Nigeria would speedily actualise her dream and potentials of being
among developed nations if it could imbibe the values symbolised by Soyinka. He
said at the weekend in a tribute read at another banquet organised to mark the
70th birthday of Prof. Soyinka at the Eko Hotel in Lagos.
The governor said: "Wole Soyinka has
become part of the reality of our existence. He signifies those values that can
lead us to the nation of our dream. The values of social conscience that compels
the individual to challenge injustice and repel indignity.
"The values of rationality and healthy
doubt that allows us never to believe that there is no alternative and
constantly impels us to creativity chart, a part through the thickest thicket of
dogma. The values of progressive and popular change that preaches that the
social progress can take place without popular participation," he said.
Describing Soyinka’s conscientiousness as
the defining essence of his being, Gov. Tinubu stated that "unless we appreciate
that commitment to one’s conscience is the most holistic definition and
description of his 70 years, we will miss the ball and kick the leg,
figuratively speaking."
While he acknowledged the Nobel Laureate’s
stature as a civilised man of universal significance, Tinubu noted that "he is
quite essential Omoluabi, the product of truly Yoruba environment in Ake
which enabled him to draw the lane which neither man nor any of his creations
must fall below. That is the line of morality defined by the dignity of man."
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