by Alexander O. Onukwue

The spokesman of President Buhari, Femi Adesina, wrote a piece recently which was titled “Wanted: A Restructuring of Nigerian minds”. Reading up the recent comments made by Prof Wole Soyinka about those who make such remarks about restructuring the mind, you would have thought the Nobel Laureate has raised Mr Adesina to the dignity of his adversary.

But no, he was really revisiting his old rival, and subject of some his best publications, former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

“There are”, says Soyinka, “those who try to divert direct attention away from the main issues by mounting platitudes, clichés like ‘it is the mind that needs restructuring’; you know who I am about.”

“This constant process of restructuring the mind is both an individual exercise as well as theological exercise. People go to churches and mosques to have their mind restructured; they go to school, they go to extra-mural classes to have their mind restructured. Restructuring the mind is not the issue, nobody is saying the exercise of restructuring the mind should not be undertaken; anybody who indulges in self-examination is already engaging in mind restructuring”

He added that it was “trivialising and cheap” to hear the expression that it is the mind which needs to be restructured. “Who is arguing it? Who is denying that? It is not a substitute, why are you bringing it up?”.

Obasanjo, while speaking at an event at the palace of the Olu of Warri, said in July that “the answer to most of our problems is mindset change and change of mentality. If we need any restructuring, it is the restructuring of our mindset and mentality”.

At the same forum where he made the comments above, Soyinka also criticised Buhari’s resumption speech remark that the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable. That may have also been another potshot to OBJ who had said that only a person who was not in his right senses would believe that separation from the country is the way out. “We have passed that stage” Obasanjo did say at the same occasion at the Olu’s.

Prof Soyinka and Obasanjo have been at loggerheads as long as anyone can remember. The odds on Obasanjo responding to the latest dig by his old foe in the ring are going to be really low.

Editor