I Never Berated Igbo Over Voting Pattern – Soyinka

Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka has denied reports in The Cable online news medium, which portrayed him as berating Igbo over their voting pattern in the March 28 presidential election, saying that it will be very unfortunate for the public to believe that such statement could be made by him. The Cable had published a report alleging that Soyinka accused the Igbo of voting according to their “stomachs”. In a fuming reaction to the publication, Soyinka stated in a statement: “I have just read a statement attributed to me on something called The CABLE, 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 stated 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.” Meanwhile, the earlier published story by The Cable stated the Nobel laureate and foremost social critic, Soyinka, reads: “Soyinka while delivering a lecture titled ‘Predicting Nigeria, Electoral Ironies’ at the Harvard University Hutchins Centre for African and African American Research, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, the revered scholar described people from that part of the country as ‘greedy’.” It quoted that “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.”