Soyinka Gives 30-Day Ultimatum To Those Challenging His Academic Records To Submit Evidence To EFCC, ICPC, Others Or Jump From ‘River Niger’

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on Friday, reacted to reports alleging discrepancies in his academic records while asking the purveyors of the “sordid material to submit all evidence, however minuscule, to the nation’s investigative agencies.”

Soyinka listed the Directorates of Prosecutions, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), plus the affected institutions, saying the peddlers of the stories had only 30 days to submit their evidence to the agencies listed.

There have been reports in certain media (not SaharaReporters) that the claim by Soyinka that he obtained a first-class bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Leeds University was being challenged.

A certain Prof. James Gibbs was said to have made the claim, saying in an interview in Accra, Ghana, that in a 1983 interview with Mike Awoyinfa published by Sunday Concord of February 27, Wole Soyinka claimed that after his first degree in Leeds he did not feel like going for any postgraduate studies saying ‘I was bored, I felt that I had grasped enough of what I wanted from my literature studies. So I felt I wanted to get out and write. I believe that the student period of one’s existence should be short and intense. So after three years I felt I should go out.’

However, Gibbs told TODAY in an exclusive interview in Ghana that the claim was a “blatant lie since Professor Soyinka had duly completed his MA programme in English literature but failed in the Autumn of 1957”, a report by Century Post said.

Gibbs went further to reveal that Soyinka “sat papers on Shakespeare, the Novel, the period 1660-1668 and American Literature; he submitted an essay on O’Neill, and he presented himself for an oral exam,” in 1958.

However, Gibbs said, “his (Soyinka) work did not satisfy the examiners: Kettle and Jeffares (internal), Professor Sutherland of London University and Professor D. S. Welland of Manchester (external).”

“It seems they realised that the candidate (Soyinka) was ill and in a state of considerable nervous tension; it is on record that if they had known how sick he was, he would not have been allowed to sit the papers. That was that and Wole Soyinka had to wait until 1973 for a postgraduate qualification from the (same) University of Leeds,” he had added.

Reacting to the allegations, Soyinka in a release sent to SaharaReporters on Friday, said he had also copied his reaction to the Academic Staff Union of Nigeria, Pan-African Writers Association, Accra, Nigerian Association of Authors, the Nobel Foundation, Stockholm, the University of Leeds, the alleged Bristol Primary Source and his school.   

He said, “A document of unmatchable scurrility, last encountered during General Sani Abacha’s global campaign of calumny against opponents of his despotic, infernally venal and homicidal reign, is back in circulation. 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. The contents of that script are attributed, as before, to the scholastic industry of a Bristol schoolteacher.

“While awaiting a decision from my lawyers whether or not to dignify the current sponsors of this mouldy tract with legal action, 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. 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.”