Thursday 22 May 2014

Soyinka says he's never referred to Patience Jonathan as 'illiterate'

Literary icon Professor Wole Soyinka in a statement released yesterday to media houses said that while he may have publicly chastised First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, he has never referred to her as an illiterate. He said his name is being falsely used to disrespect the first lady and will take legal action once he finds out the source of the lies. I recall him referring to Patience Jonathan as that woman on his CNN interview with Amanpour though. Anyway, his statement reads in part below;

"It commenced over a year ago, I seem to recollect, as a telephone text, 'tweet' or whatever it is called, died away after strong rebuttals, and is now being provided renewed life by some faceless cowards with their own private agenda. Let me state quite clearly that literacy is no indicator of intelligence, even though we all believe (I hope) in universal literacy. From childhood I have interacted with so-called "illiterate" men and women, sipped from their innate intelligence, and learnt much from them outside formal schooling"...

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