The members of the campaign team of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu have reacted to the response of Prof. Wole Soyinka to a viral video of the members of the Pyrates Confraternity mocking Tinubu’s ill-health.
In the viral video posted on social media, some members of the Confraternity group were seen dressed in red and white attire yelling out critical remarks as they gyrate to a song that mocked Tinubu over the speech made in Ogun State ahead of the party presidential primary.
It could be recalled that the former Governor of Lagos State had during a controversial speech stated with Governor Abiodun and Ogun State delegates that ‘Emi lo kan’, meaning ‘It’s my turn to get power after President Muhammadu Buhari.
In the viral video, the members of the Pyrates Confraternity sang, “Hand dey shake, leg dey shake, Baba wey no well, e de shout Emi lo kan (Hands are shaking, legs are shaking. A sick old man is shouting ‘it’s my turn).
“Emi lo kan (2ce), Baba wey no well, him dey shout Emi Lokan (It’s my turn (2ce), a sick old man is shouting ‘it’s my turn”.
“Let me make the following cultural affirmation. I have listened to the lyrics of the chant intently and I am frankly appalled. I find it distasteful. I belong to a culture where we do not mock physical afflictions or disabilities.
“Very much the contrary. The Yoruba religion indeed designates a deity, Obatala, as the divine protector of the afflicted, no matter the nature of such affliction. This sensibility is engrained in us from childhood and remains with us all our lives. It operates on the principle of mortal frailty to which all humanity remains vulnerable.
“One of my favourite authors, about whom, by a coincidence, I had cause to write quite recently, was CLR James, author of The Black Jacobins, Beyond A Boundary etc. I called him my ideological uncle. He suffered from Parkinson’s Disease but remained alert, lucid and combative for decades after the onset of the disease.
“We interacted politically at the Tanzanian pan-African Congress, the Dakar Festival of Negro Arts and a number of other cultural and political fora.
“We met frequently in his lifetime, dined together in restaurants, despite his challenge. it would be unthinkable, and a desecration of his memory to be part of any activity that mocked his affliction,” Soyinka stated.
But reacting to Soyinka’s response, those in the Tinubu camp have allegedly said that the APC presidential candidate and his team are annoyed over the Nobel Laureate’s response.
They accused Soyinka of systematically revealing “that Tinubu got Parkinson’s disease, thereby confirming that he’s an invalid candidate.”
“They are angry that Prof. (Professor Soyinka) revealed too much about Bola Tinubu’s health condition,” he added. (Daily Independent)
