Nobel Laureate Prof Wole Soyinka has denied being associated with a viral video showing some purported members of the National Association of Seadogs, otherwise called Pyrates Confraternity, mocking the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in a song.
In the one-minute video, the members dressed in red and white attire danced and chanted thus, “Hand dey shake, leg dey shake, baba wey no well he dey shout Emi Lokan,” roughly translated to mean “With an unstable hand and leg, a man with frail health is sounding off that it’s his turn to be Nigeria’s president.’’
The phrase, “Emi Lokan,’’ sneaked into the nation’s consciousness on June 3, 2022, during a meeting with the party delegates in Abeokuta, Ogun State, where Tinubu expressed frustration over the non-support of his ambition to win the party’s presidential ticket.
This, he noted, despite having worked for the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari as President in 2015, including Mr. Dapo Abiodun as Ogun State governor, who he referred to as ‘Eleyi’ (this one).
In a statement on Monday titled, ‘Interim statement on a dubious political outing,’ the Nobel laureate said that his attention was drawn to a video clip making internet rounds, of a dancing and chanting group, in red and white costume, purportedly members of the Pyrates Confraternity.
Soyinka said, “The display acidly targets a presidential candidate in the awaited 2023 elections. Since the whole world knows of my connection with that fraternity, it is essential that I state in clear, unambiguous terms that I am not involved in that public performance nor in any way associated with the sentiments expressed in the songs.
“Like any other civic group, the Pyrates Confraternity is entitled to its freedom of expression, individually or collectively. So also, is Wole Soyinka in his own person. I do not interfere in, nor do I attempt to dictate the partisan political choices of the Confraternity. I remain unaware that the association ever engages in a collective statement of sponsorship or repudiation of any candidate. This is clearly a new and bizarre development, fraught with unpredictable consequences.
“In addition, let me make the following cultural affirmation. I have listened to the lyrics of the chant intently and I am frankly appalled. I find it distasteful. I belong to a culture where we do not mock physical afflictions or disabilities. Very much the contrary. The Yoruba religion indeed designates a deity, Obatala, as the divine protector of the afflicted, no matter the nature of such affliction. This sensibility is engrained in us from childhood and remains with us all our lives. It operates on the principle of mortal frailty to which all humanity remains vulnerable.
“One of my favourite authors, about whom, by coincidence, I had cause to write quite recently, was CLR James, author of The Black Jacobins, Beyond A Boundary etc. I called him my ideological uncle. He suffered from Parkinson’s Disease, but remained alert, lucid and combative for decades after the onset of the disease.
“We interacted politically at the Tanzanian pan-African Congress, the Dakar Festival of Negro Arts, and a number of other cultural and political fora. We met frequently in his lifetime, dined together in restaurants, despite his challenge. It would be unthinkable, and a desecration of his memory to be part of any activity that mocked his affliction.”
The essayist added that a further statement would be issued on the development after he had made further enquiries into what he described as the strange, uncharacteristic outing of the association.
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