Exclusive: Nobel Laureate; Wole Soyinka Hosts Channels Bookclub Pt 2

um, has your writing evolved? um, it seems to me that from an arts of literature approach, if I may put it that way, it seems that in your most recent writings I have had to deal with attack and defense and make your position clear and for example, your last book, between inventions, in which you addressed specific public lies, mentioned names, what they said was wrong, corrected it, corrected the story in many cases, etc. I tend to think that your writing has evolved from an emphasis on art to artistry. on political, social, cultural issues, is that a correct observation comes with time and age, let's put it this way, I once called My Generation the wasted generation simply because the hopes, the energy, the excitement that we had and that influenced what they reported. activities at the beginning all those hopes have been wasted and that naturally makes you concentrate more and more bitterly very often on what is wrong um so I'm not surprised that this you already know I think at the beginning one tended to write in generally speaking, these are the weaknesses that are seen in humanity, these are in society, in particular, these are the evils that I think we can correct collectively and we can take advantage of the mistakes of the past and see the core of what is positive. in your environment it dissipates much faster than the positive that comes to take its place, so naturally once the language becomes a little more AIC, you know that you have the same reprobates recycling without success, in other words, it is as if You would never have said anything or what you have said.

Anyway, it didn't matter M just pushed aside those who are predators of society have become more and more brazen, they are actually Basques with impunity and of course they lie to cover their tracks, they lie to deflect criticism , the lie to discredit, you know your position and directly discredit yourself, so I think inevitably one says wait a minute, wait a minute. I said this in general terms, but you seem to be particularly personally affected and therefore want to attack personally. Now let's look at where you're coming from, let's look at what you just said. let's put it all before the public and in the kind of language where there is no ambiguity that's all that happened it's nothing dramatic that's all that happened in your book you must have made page 262 actually um 262 263 you had a lot to say about the current president, president Muhammad Bohari, uh, let me read a little here where you said the answer was simple, he gained the favor of the public by talking about um president babangida, he wrote to the favor of the public about the brutal and hypocritical record of his predecessor. devil for whom, by my calculations, no spoon existed long enough to justify the risk of evil from an impromptu snack, you described him in very harsh words, you described him as someone with whom you can't even use a long spoon years after you seem to do it. you changed your position before the last election you preferred him to the other candidates former president good luck Jonathan and in general it seems that you have told people that he is a converted democrat to put it that way what changed not only in that book, but even in the media I remember that he was opposed before and that he was supported by several people who I considered progressive, you know, and I cataloged all the things, not all, but several reasons why I felt he should not be elected in no government. in any government position in this country and at the time this was quite true in my opinion, but then what happened first, we were left with two, really you two, two contestants, two credible contenders in terms of a catchment area for the nation that, in my opinion, had reached rock bottom.

I became convinced that if this country went through four more years under President Jonathan, the country would fully function. I looked at the record and said, well, this can't continue, this has to stop, so I looked at this man. who participated in the elections three times before he said that he would not participate anymore and then decided to throw his heart into the ring I talked to people I said do you know what you are doing? I'm talking my colleagues my collaborators my you I know from the anti-abat days and so on. I told them: do you know what you are doing? and they said this man has been changing, we have approached him, we studied him, he has changed, I use the expression.

I said they believe there is a genuine born again democrat who can emerge from the military and they said yes and after weighing all the options I said well let's try a new one and since in electoral terms they know that he was the one that I cautiously and with reservations that I announced, he said no, not a continuation under Jonathan and of course, uh, not everything was negative under Bhari to a large extent, it was excess, his problem was excess, excess. I don't like those who imprison people without trial, like he did. um, journalists, I don't like people who say not only will I not tolerate criticism, but I will imprison anyone who practically says this, anyone who criticizes the government and sets an example for those poor journalists who were just doing their job in a way very honorable. so these were negative, but now I say that maybe this was a mistake and in any case this is not a democracy, the same kind of energy that I harnessed during the military era using the military spirit, if you want I can use the same energy in the same way. compromise under a democratic dispensation um um and very reluctantly I want to make this quite clear and I made it quite clear I said I have evaluated both and I think we start this nation has a better chance under Bohari and we will have the Democratic controls on our side under the Army we had absolutely no controls, but this time I said we will have Democratic controls and we know what to do if we find out we are facing another attack.

I was convinced that it couldn't be worse than aacha first of all and we survived under aacha we fought him to stay put and I felt that if bohari goes astray then we will fight him once again and what has been coming out now look at everything that has been going on Coming out the figures that virtually Hammer one into the ground, you know the enormous enormity of the theft that we have done to this nation and that it is being progressively exposed, which shows that we did not make a bad decision, so you are very happy with the latest six seven months of this Administration. uh not quite yet, it sounds like bohari has proven you right, well bhari has proven that yes there is such a thing as a born again democrat.