The famous Nigerian entertainer, Charles Oputa, popularly addressed as Charly Boy, has criticised the popular Nigerian playwright, Wole Soyinka, over his opinions on the supporters of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party LP, Peter Obi: ‘Obidients’.
The Informant247 recalls that the Nobel Laureate on Friday April 7 spoke against Obidients for taking a swipe at him describing them as facists.
While granting a television interview, Soyinka said Obidients were threats to the judiciary.
In a lengthy article released on Friday, Soyinka lambasted the LP candidate supporters for refusing to entertain corrective criticism.
He stated that the word ‘Obidients’ is one of the most repulsive, off-putting concoctions he has ever encountered in any political arena.
Charly Boy took to Instagram on Saturday April 8 to say he has withdrawn the respect he has for Soyinka and that the literary guru would never be like the late literary icon, Chinua Achebe.
He said it’s shameful that Soyinka has reduced his personality to that of a little boy because of criminal politicians.
He said: “The kind respect I had for dis man, was almost the kind of respect I had for my stainless father, The Socrates of the Supreme Court.
“It has finally dawned on me that Soyinka can never be the man Chinua Achebe was.
“Look at a man many Nigerians put on such high pedestal reducing himself to a boyiboyi for criminal politicians. What a f..king big shame”.
Recall that Soyinka condemned the media for misinterpreting part of his interview with Channels Television.
The Nobel laureate accused the media of taking a part of his interview out of context and slicing some parts into new ones.
The Channels TV hosted the emeritus Professor a week ago on Monday and the contents of the interview made headlines.
While reacting to the misinterpretation of his opinions in a statement titled ”Media Responsibility” released on Tuesday April 4, the prominent scholar said: “When remarks are taken out of context, spliced into a new one, provided a sensational headline, distortions become stamped on public receptivity, and the central intent of one’s remarks becomes completely unrecognizable.
“I denounced the menacing utterances of a Vice-Presidential aspirant as unbecoming. It was a gladiatorial challenge directed at the judiciary and, by implication, the rest of the democratic polity.
“But what on earth has happened to my even more urgent condemnation of the physical violence inflicted on those designated “strangers” in Lagos in the lead up to, and during governorship elections?
“This prejudicial selectivity is a betrayal of trust, and I find it contemptuous of public deserving. My critique of incipient fascism in the movement remains grounded in indisputable evidence. Throughout the interview, I continued to stress that the final word had yet to be pronounced on the elections – that omission renders the full message tendentious!”
The literary guru also noted that : “It was depressing to watch his lieutenant, a crucially positioned voice of a movement that has “broken the mould”, threaten the totality of social existence. Whatever our ideological leaning, is Donald Trump the ideal template for a burgeoning democracy in the nation?
“On a minor note, I remain concerned by the alleged complaint by me of people not following “instructions”. If words are garbled in recording, the speaker can be reached for clarification – else, simply leave out the unclear section completely to avoid misrepresentation.
“After all, piecemeal transmission is legitimate proceeding, as long as a part is not presented as the whole. I am not a member of the Labour Party, so how can giving ‘instructions’ become my role? Like a number of others, I have admittedly contributed to the making of this moment – going back several years – and it is painful to have the followers of such a movement, send it slithering backwards and down the fascistic slope.
“I hope CHANNELS plans to provide the entire interview. After months of having to endure total fabrications of partisan utterances that are strange to me, even in their very choice of words, it is most aggravating to have this, the first I have conceded in my authenticated person, casually subjected to selective editing and dissemination.
“Let us play by the rules of mutual obligation, or else abandon public discourse altogether,” he stated.