Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has dismissed calls for him to assess President Bola Tinubu’s administration, stating that he will speak when he deems it necessary.
Soyinka, who had earlier indicated he would evaluate Tinubu’s government after one year in office, clarified that he is not bound by any specific timeline.
“People should stop trying to work on my timetable for me,” he said during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Monday. “I had not swallowed an alarm clock. I don’t see why I should put my alarm on and say: ‘One year has passed, now, I must make an assessment’ if there is nothing I feel like talking about and if I am busy elsewhere.”
The literary icon previously visited Tinubu in Lagos in December 2023, where he stated that he would reserve his comments on the administration until May 2024. However, with critics blaming Tinubu’s government for economic hardship, inflation, and the high cost of living, many expected Soyinka to weigh in on these issues.
Responding to the expectations, Soyinka emphasized that assessing a government is a collective duty, pointing to the roles played by figures such as Femi Falana, Olusegun Baiyewu, and Omoyele Sowore in critiquing the administration.
“This business of ‘you haven’t come to do this’, I don’t understand it. Other people are doing the same; this is a collective effort,” he said.
He also questioned why people expect him to make formal assessments of Tinubu’s government when he had never done so with past administrations.
“The only question I’d ask you is: ‘Did I do that with Jonathan? Did I do that with Buhari? Did I do that with Obasanjo?’ So, why is it expected of me?”
Soyinka reiterated that he will speak on national issues at his own pace, not due to external pressure.
