Martins Owoseni

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has described former American President, Donald Trump as a menace, a danger to the world and a consummate liar.

Soyinka, in an interview with TheNEWS to mark his 90th birthday, Trump is not as clever as he thought he was.

“But he did one thing. He studied and he understood the American psyche. And he knew the right chord to tweak in order to get them on his side, to get them to believe anything that he says. I don’t think the world has ever known such a consummate liar like Donald Trump,” he said.

Soyinka said Nigeria has had one consummate liar, but said he is just a copycat besides Trump.

“We have had one here also, but he is just a copycat beside Donald Trump. If you want to find out what is going on, look at all the many lies of this fellow called Trump. So many lies. But I don’t want to go in that direction. Let’s just remark it and move on.

“And the one in Nigeria who is trying to copy Trump has studied only a minuscule section of the Nigerian psyche and he was able to tweak certain sentiments, certain aspects of our history. Again, I don’t want to talk about that. So, let’s move on.

“But Donald Trump is a menace, he is a danger to the world. I mean it. It is not just to America. He is a danger to the world,” Soyinka stated.

The Nobel laureate added that one thing shocked him but it also enabled him, making reference to his Green Card episode.

“This reminds me of the Green Card episode in which I could not believe  that there were people in this country -I should not have been surprised -who actually made it their business  to come and comment acerbically on the decision of any citizen  to say, I don’t like what is happening over there.

“Therefore, I want to terminate my relationship with that place. To make that decision of mine your own business, is a reflection of your slave mentality.  There was one young man, a Nigerian, who even said God had ordained that that Trump would triumph.  Okay. That’s fine.

“But at least that particular person didn’t have to attack me for cutting up my Green Card or saying I dared not do it.  Even though I have written about it in Green Cards, Green Gods, it is still something I sometime wake up and puzzle over.  Did it really happen?

“Did Nigeria, a free nation of free people with their history, with their supposed knowledge of what was happening elsewhere in the world, become so stupid they could not understand that even when Trump was campaigning, the killing, extra-judicial killing of blacks by the police shot up drastically, not even only by the police?

“And then I said, I don’t want to be a permanent resident of that place, and some Nigerians made it their business to abuse me for that? I cut up my Green Card on Thanksgiving Day in America, I was in Oakland, California. Thanksgiving was in November. Up till February of the following year, Nigerians were still saying I dared not cut it up!”

Soyinka added: “And it gave me enormous inner pleasure to say nothing. I said let them keep making slaves of themselves. They didn’t even know that in the meantime the IRS were taking their revenge as they decided to get their taxes. They said I owed close to $60,000. So, I went to the American Embassy in Nigeria.

“I said, Look at this wahala o. I have left your country. But now IRS says I owe this and that I must report. Then I said, Could you give me a B1 visa?  I had already cut up my Green Card. They had no problem: I got the visa. What was the problem with Nigerians?

“The country whose Green Card I tore didn’t have any problem. They gave me B1 visa to go and answer their query in the States. I went and came back—tax matter sorted. But those slaves were still abusing me.”

Soyinka narrated another event which occurred in the plane when he mistakenly took over someone’s seat.

“The incident in the plane which occupied some Nigerians for weeks, a trivial incident which happened because of my sitting in the wrong seat.  And then somebody came along. That’s my seat, he said. I said, Wait, call the hostess. And the hostess said, He’s right. I said, Sorry, and I left the seat for him.

“This trip from Lagos to Abuja became a trip from Abuja to America in some of the write-ups (laughs) I said, What is this?  Normally, I give up my seat to people in the plane if there is any need for it. Sometimes people come in, and they have been given separate seats. I look at them. I see them looking around anxiously.

“I say, Do you want to come and sit here?  And they say, Yes, thank you. The most ordinary, banal thing in the world. When it comes to Nigeria, the Zone B people want to climb to Zone A to show their power, to show their stupidity. It’s something that boggles the mind,” he said.

Trump, a one term US president, is vying for a second term.

During his campaign in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump survived an assassination attempt, but the shooter was killed by security operatives.

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