Wole Soyinka, the Nobel laureate, has issued a 30-day
ultimatum to those challenging his academic records to provide evidence of
their allegations to the relevant investigative bodies in Nigeria.
Soyinka attended Leeds University from 1954 to 1957 and
received an honours degree in English Literature.
He stayed in the city after his studies and wrote two of his
first major plays – The Swamp Dwellers and The Lion and the Jewel – before
moving to London, where he worked as a play reader for the Royal Court Theatre,
and then returned to Nigeria in 1960.
A previous report had resurfaced online, wherein a certain
James Gibbs, a professor, was said to have disputed that Soyinka graduated with
a first-class degree from Leeds University.
In a statement on Friday titled “A moral call to amoral
conscripts”, the Nobel laureate said if the allegations are proven to be true,
he would strip himself of the honours and achievements he has garnered in his
writing career.
He said peddlers of the allegations should submit any
document that can prove their claims to the directorates of prosecutions, the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt
Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
“Duly modified to suit a debased internet culture, it is
making its grimy rounds ironically under the auspices of a democratic political
party, supposedly dedicated to an ethos of freedom of opinion and expression,”
Soyinka writes.
“The contents of that script are attributed, as before, to
the scholastic industry of a Bristol schoolteacher.
The celebrated writer said he is awaiting his lawyer on
whether or not to take legal action against those behind the allegations.
“I wish to state in advance that I voluntarily waive all
protection under the statute of limitations, and insist that the laws that
govern fraudulent academic claims be invoked and applied to these allegations
to the uttermost limit,” he said.
“I also declare, in advance that, if found culpable, I shall
strip myself of any titles and honours I may have garnered in my entire career,
from the most obscure to the most coveted.
“In return, I expect the purveyors of this sordid material
to submit all evidence, however minuscule, to the nation’s investigative
agencies – Directorates of Prosecutions, EFCC, ICPC, plus affected institutions
and others – within the next thirty days.
“Failing this elementary service in public interest within
the stated time, and/or If such allegations are yet again proven baseless, thus
indicating that their sponsors can boast of neither honours to their careers
nor honour to their births and origins, then, as a token of moral recompense,
they should undertake to jump off the bridge of the symbolic River Niger,
provided with life jackets, to ensure a life of remorse after this ritual
purgation, but chained to one another in a commendable unity of purpose.
“This is being copied to the Academic Staff Union of
Nigeria, Pan-African Writers Association, Accra, Nigeran Association of
Authors, the Nobel Foundation, Stockholm, the University of Leeds, the alleged
Bristol Primary Source and his school, and the infested media.”
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