Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has condemned protests against the appointment of Prof. Adebayo Bamire as vice-chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State.
Traditionalists had on Monday protested on the campus, saying Bamire was not an indigene of Ile-Ife.
At a lecture titled ‘The Politics of Black Intellection and Creativity’ at the University of Pennsylvania, United States on Tuesday, Soyinka said there was no basis for such protest.
“Why should there be an Ife VC anywhere?” he asked. “An Ife person wrote me and said, ‘Look at these people disgracing us.’ I told him ‘Go there and disgrace them. You are an Ife person. You should be in the frontline.'”
“The Ife people should say those people don’t belong to us; we don’t know where they came from. And they should be dealt with ruthlessly. I just don’t understand what they put in the water these days. It is crazy,” he added.
The renowned playwright also commented on insecurity in Nigeria. “I stated one time that anytime anybody is kidnapped in any state, let us shut down that state immediately until that person is recovered. It has reached that point that abnormal measures are absolutely imperative. It is no longer a choice. And yet the government continues to roll on,” said Soyinka.
On Wednesday, Ooni of Ife Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi cautioned Ife indigenes and residents protesting over the issue not to carry out unlawful acts. He promised that their agitations would be looked into.
