She was reacting to the recent statement by
the World-acclaimed writer that he rejected the centenary awards offered by
President Goodluck Jonathan to celebrate the 100 years of the amalgamation of
Nigeria because Abacha was also included in the list. Soyinka described the
decoration of Abacha with a National honour as an insult.
Gumsu took to her facebook page to react to
the statement, stating that “someone tell Soyinka I liked his books when I was
younger but that is where it ends. Today I reject his stupid, foolish
insignificant statement”.
In a related event, Sodiq Abacha, one of the
sons of the late dictator also berated Soyinka for criticizing successive
governments without proffering solution or offering himself for an elective
position.
His open letter shared by Gumsu, reads in
part:
“Sir, I believe brilliance is not perfection.
I have grown and watched you criticize regime after regime and at that young
and naive age I was thinking why wouldn’t this man just contest to be president
so that Nigeria can be saved, I would have defiantly voted for Mr Soyinka if it
would have brought an end to Nigeria’s woes. To my utter surprise, I heard
about your FRSC leadership and how funds were misused and a great deal of it
unaccounted for. “Oh my God! In the end he turned out to be just the same as
everybody else” were my next thoughts. My hopes for you, all ended up in great
disappointment”.
Read Soyinka’s The Canonisation Of Terror,
stating his reasons for rejecting the awards and berating Abacha as unworthy to
be honoured.
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