The management of Cable Newspaper Limited, publishers of TheCable, would like to make the following statement concerning our report on the lecture by Professor Wole Soyinka at the Harvard University Hutchins Centre for African & African American Research.
Soyinka was quoted to have made derogatory remarks about the Igbo over their voting pattern in the March 28 presidential election. He has since denied the offensive quotes attributed to him.
After an in-house investigation, we have come to the conclusion that the story misrepresented the views expressed by Soyinka in the question-and-answer session after his lecture.
We take full responsibility for the inaccuracy and promise that we will continue to strive to improve our standards. Also, we wish to reiterate that we take our professional responsibilities very seriously, as our readers can attest to. We hereby offer an unreserved apology to Soyinka, Ndigbo and our readers.
The above was the position of TheCable on Thursday, May 7 following the controversy which its publication credited to Soyinka caused locally and internationally.
On Wednesday, May 6, major national newspapers were awash in their publications with comments credited to Soyinka, a Nobel Laureate and international scholar, which several online media, including TheCable, had given prominence a day earlier.
When it bleeds it leads. The editors dwelt on what I consider the news and marketing element of what must have been credited to Soyinka, rightly or wrongly, which painted a pejorative picture of the Igbo.
When I first read Soyinka’s alleged comments from online publications on Tuesday, May 5, I was not only alarmed, but felt deeply hurt.
My worry got worse the next day when newspapers repeated almost the issues raised by the online publications, with THISDAY and Punch providing greater details.
Here is a paraphrase of the comment credited to Soyinka in the publications.
“Igbos remained unrepentant and resolute towards their strategic objective of secession at worst; or a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction at best ….
“The climax of MASSOB’s war against the Nigerian state was the call for sit-ins and civil disobedience that shut down markets and public services, as Igbos stayed at home in a symbolic gesture to assert Biafran independence.
“The call was honoured by governors in the two principal Ibo states, though without fanfare ….
“The Igbos are probably the only group of Nigerians that you can predict with great accuracy whom they will vote for in an election, because they tend to put their votes where their stomachs take them; suffering as it were, from incurable money-mindedness, as they would stop at nothing in their quest for personal financial gain.”
Soyinka reportedly also described the Igbo as “greedy”.
But he would not take the comment linked to him hence he issued a statement on Wednesday, May 6 describing anyone who believes in what was published as a moron.
He said: “I have just read a statement attributed to me on something called TheCable, a news outlet, evidently one of the internet infestations. My lecture at the Hutchins Centre, Harvard University, was video recorded.
“Anyone who believes what I am alleged to have said must be a moron – repeat, a moron.
“It is demeaning, sickening and boring to have to deal with these cowards who cannot fight their own battles but must fasten their imbecilic pronouncements on others.
“Only the mentally retarded will credit this comment attributed to me regarding the Ndigbo voting pattern in the last elections. I strongly suspect the author of this despicable concoction, and may make a further statement, once the source is verified.”
Before Soyinka dissociated himself from the reports, Aka Ikenga, the think tank of Ohanaeze, had expressed its dismay in a statement.
Aka Ikenga President, Goddy Uwazurike, wrote: “The demonisation of Ndigbo by a group of people who have nothing positive to contribute to the peaceful conclusion of the presidential election.
“Ndigbo voted freely and without any fear or favour. To attribute it to greed or stomach infrastructure or even love of money is to carry on this malicious stigmatisation to a ridiculous level. Ekiti voted for the PDP and it was called stomach infrastructure but not Osun that voted the APC.
“Amaechi of Rivers and close friend of Wole Soyinka lost his state and all South East and South South states and we are all categorised as people who put their votes where their stomach is and are suffering from incurable money mindedness.
“The statement from Soyinka is a sign that the quality of gun totting Wole of Ibadan has gone into oblivion! It is now replaced by that of a man who must speak even when he has nothing.”
Shortly before the governorship election was held, the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, also made a comment about the Igbo that rankled with many.
When the heat was on him, he denied he made the comment that the Igbo would drown in the lagoon if they failed to vote for his preferred governorship candidate, now Governor-elect Akinwunimi Ambode.
I am not suggesting that Soyinka made the comment credited to him. But it will only be fair, just and reasonable if the erudite scholar would go the whole hog to ascertain who the hair-brained crackpot was that took it upon himself or herself to rewrite his lecture by injecting elements that have caused much embarrassment to Soyinka, the Igbo, and by extension to Nigeria.
To say that we desperately await Soyinka to unmask the author(s) of this despicable note, establish their intention, is to say the least. Reason: With or without the apologies flying around, the intention of the designers of this campaign of destruction has been achieved.
With the 2015 electioneering drawing close, all manner of characters who can at best be described as ethnic irredentists, and suffering from what I call Igbophobia took it upon themselves to smear the Igbo as a whole for no just cause.
To such persons, the Igbo are second class citizens in Nigeria not qualified to exist in the country not to talk of holding any responsible office. The mere mention of an Igbo for consideration for any position of responsibility gives them sleepless nights, hence they look for ways to destroy the person.
The Goodluck Jonathan administration has been accused of favouring the Igbo in appointments when there are hardly projects in the South East to justify such claims.
The proponents of that view are working on the premise that the incoming Muhammadu Buhari administration should ignore the Igbo since they ran the government with Jonathan.
But it would be full hardy for any reasonable person to think that an ethnic nationality like the Igbo that constitutes about 33 per cent of the population of Nigeria and whose indigenes are the most travelled outside their home, did not contribute to the emergence of Buhari.
In politics, as in business, academia, religion, media or any other human endeavour, the Igbo have done well to bring honour to the country, both as individuals and as a group of people.
But a few people who think they own Nigeria and are superior to others resort to campaign of hate and annihilation of a people with little conscience of the implication.
I do not have a problem if an Igbo man or woman who has done something untoward is identified, taken up and dealt with in accordance with the laws of the country. Ditto those from other ethnic nationalities.
But I have a big problem when blanket generalisation is adopted by some people, who, driven by hate, insult the sensibility of all Igbo because of pecuniary interest.
Those who are versed in the political and economic history of Nigeria know that the Igbo have contributed and are contributing immensely to the greatness of this country through hard work, dedication and commitment.
Anyone or group who insults them does so at his or own risk.