has reiterated his warning that when confronted, corruption does fight back.
In a brief statement issued this yesterday, headed ‘Those Who
Flounder In The Sewage of Corruption,”, he acknowledged the unflattering
comments of the Rivers State government about the 80th birthday dinner
to which he was hosted by the former governor and now Minister of
Aviation, Honorable Rotimi Amechi
Speaking to press correspondents on Tuesday, the Rivers Commissioner
for Information and Communication, Dr. Austin Tam-George, accused Mr.
Amaechi’s government of spending N82 million on the event.
“A government that did not pay salaries, closed the courts, but the
administration had the courage to expend N82million to fund a dinner for
Prof Wole Soyinka,” he had said. “These are facts on ground. The Amaechi administration expended the money under the heading of borrowed funds.”
In a follow-up comment on radio on Wednesday, the commissioner said
he would seek the permission of Governor Nyesom Wike to write to
Professor Soyinka to find out he was paid part of the money by the
Amaechi administration.
Professor Soyinka said he had first ignored reports about the
remarks, as it was not, and is not his business to probe into the
catering and logistical implications of the hundreds of institutions and
governments all over the world who have offered him unsolicited
recognition over the years.
“Since then however, I have learnt of some unsavory statements by the
insecure incumbent of the Rivers State government Lodge,” he said,
adding that they included a loose invitation to anti-crime agencies to
investigate the potential crime of being honoured through any occasion.
“The unprecedented call by this governor is prescient of a warning I
recounted in my recent pamphlet publication THE REPUBLIC OF LIARS, and
was taken from my address to an anti-corruption global conference that
took place in Tunisia two years ago,” he recalled. “Those words were:
CORRUPTION STRIKES BACK. In this ongoing instance, that expression
translates most vividly as ‘Those who are neck deep in the sewage of
corruption ensure that they splatter sewage in all possible and
improbable directions.’”
“I do however fully support the Wikeleaks call for multi-directional
probes,” he continued. “I recommend further that he involve the services
of INTERPOL to guarantee its extension to all international
organisations and governments to whom I owe uncountable events of
recognition – including birthday luncheons, dinners, cultural receptions
and events of real, fictitious, or simply opportunistic flavoring – to
which I have submitted myself.”
Prof. Soyinka expressed regret about what he called the present level of abominable distractions.
“It is one that even I did not envisage when I warned – CORRUPTION STRIKES BACK!” he said.
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