Obasanjo is a liar and an economic illiterate – Soyinka

Prof. Wole Soyinka, has stated that he has no respect for
former President Obasanjo, who he describeds as an
indescribable liar.
Soyinka talked about the former president on Friday night
when he responded to questions during a programme
tagged: ‘An evening with Wole Soyinka’, organised by
Globacom.
Asked to respond to Obasanjo’s assessment of him in the
former president’s book titled ‘My Watch’, where he notes
that Soyinka is good at hunting and wines but a political
illiterate, Soyinka said that he was hardly bothered
because he believed that Obasanjo was a liar.
Soyinka said, “Obasanjo is entitled to his opinion. But the
question is: ‘Who respects the opinion of a liar?’
I can spend the whole night proving that he is a liar.
Obasanjo was once described by an economist, the late Prof
Ojetunji Aboyade, as an economic illiterate. They nearly
went into blows that night. It was Prof. Mabogunje who
separated them.
“So, if an economic illiterate calls somebody a political
illiterate, no problem at all.
“In ‘ My Watch’, Obasanjo told the first lie when he said he
deplored lies. Anybody who said he never plotted to have
an unconstitutional third term in office, even as a writer, I
need a word to describe him.”
The former President and the Nobel laureate have been in
a running battle taking swipes at each other over a
lingering issue between them. Obasanjo had once stated
that Soyinka once vowed that the differences between the
two of them would not be resolved on earth.
Obasanjo had also in his book, My Watch, and at public
events described Soyinka as an expert in wine matters than
in political analysis.
He had said:
“For Wole, no one can be good, nor can anything be
spot-on politically except that which emanates from
him or is ordained by him. His friends and loved
ones will always be right and correct, no matter
what they do or fail to do. He is surely a better wine
connoisseur and a more successful aparo (guinea
fowl) hunter than a political critic.
“Wole Soyinka is a gifted man. I have always
acknowledged that but he is a bad politician and I
have also always said that. That is my own point of
view. He may agree with it, he may not agree with it.
For instance, I know that if I want somebody to give
me the best wine, one of the people I will go to is
Wole Soyinka and I know he has a taste for good
wine and I said that in the book.”