By Kolawole Ojebisi
Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, has revealed that he almost threw his hat into the ring to run for the highest political office in the country on the eve of Nigeria’s return to civilian rule in 1999 following the June 12 pro-democracy struggle.
The playwright, however, said it took 36 hours of serious contemplation to come to the conclusion that dabbling in politics might not be worth his while.
He described those hours of contemplation as “crazy”
Soyinka made the revelation on Sunday during an interaction with journalists at Freedom Park, Lagos, at an event themed “June 12: Romancing the Embers.”
“I did not; I was not interested; I wanted to go back to my writing; I wanted to go back to where I belong; I am not a politician.
“I must confess, however, that for about 36 hours, I did decide that we have a responsibility and I nearly accepted the nomination to run for office of President.
“After 36 hours, I said, ‘Wole Soyinka, you dey craze.’ Then I said, let me go back to what I love doing,” he said.
He also came down hard on individuals who, in his view, trivialise the significance of the June 12 struggle, describing them as the real enemies of democracy.
“There are still a lot of misconceptions about June 12, even among those who participated, which is normal.
“When you have a movement like June 12, people come with different motivations. Some joined just to settle scores; some joined because they felt belittled or dehumanised by the conduct of the military. Others joined because they are against any form of dictatorship,” he said.
He added, “Many negative things have been written. I want it understood that we had betrayals, lots of inconsistencies, and a lot of opportunistic membership.
“We had treachery that cost many lives and pauperised hundreds. We had retributive activities even continuing after the termination of that particular regime.
“People now assume different roles, pretending and using the transition period.
“June 12 did not begin on June 12 and did not terminate on June 12. Many people—even when they want to settle political scores today, maybe over thwarted ambitions—try to trivialise June 12, instead of leaving June 12 alone. You didn’t participate, and nobody forced you to participate—leave June 12 alone.”
The engagement came on the heels of President Bola Tinubu’s conferment of national honours on Soyinka and other Nigerians– living or dead — deemed heroes of the June 12 movement.
Recall that Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999 after six years of military dictatorship which began after Buhari booted a democratically elected administration of Shehu Shagari out of power in 1983.
The 1999 presidential election was a contest between Olusegun Obasanjo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Olu Falae who ran on the platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD) and All People’s Party (APP) alliance.
Obasanjo defeated Falae to emerge as Nigeria’s president for the Fourth Republic.
