Soyinka: writing The Republic of Liars

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka  is in the middle of writing a blockbuster on his country, Nigeria.

According to him, the book  is tentatively titled, Republic of Liars.

Although Soyinka has not revealed the entire story line of the book, he gave a glimpse of what to expect: former Nigerian leader, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, will get a prominent mention in it.

For the umpteenth time, Soyinka has described Obasanjo a shameless liar whom he has no respect for.

He was responding to a question on at an event tagged: “An evening with Wole Soyinka” in Lagos on Friday, he said even though he appreciated the fact that Obasanjo as an individual is entitled to his  opinion about him,  he is nonetheless bothered because “nobody has respect for liar”.

The event organised by the telecommunication giant, Glo, was geared towards celebrating Soyinka literary feat  and the launch of Glo Literary Prize for Undergraduate Students.

In his recently published memoir, My Watch,  Obasanjo  described Soyinka as a political illiterate.

At the Glo forum, Soyinka borrowed the typification of Obasanjo by  the late Professor Ojetunji  Aboyade, an economist, who once described  Obasanjo as an “Economic Illiterate”.

“Obasanjo is entitled to his opinion like everybody. But the question  is: who respects the opinion of a liar? And I can prove he is a  shameless liar. Like an economist once told him to his face. I mean Ojetunji Aboyade who told Obasanjo to his face that he is an economic  illiterate. So if an economic illiterate call me political illiterate, no problem. Even in the book, he told the first lie when said he deplored liars. Anybody like Obasanjo saying he never plotted third term in office, who even as a writer, I know the word to call that,” Soyinka said.

“I have been talking to my publisher lately on a new work. It is titled tentatively: ‘The Republic of Liars’ and Obasanjo featured  in it prominently. This is the last I would say about it”.