Worried by fake news and his misrepresentation in the media, elder statesman and Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has announced a $1000 reward for anyone who can expose the author(s) of fake news recently credited to him.
Warning Nigerians to be wary of unfounded information published as fake news, Soyinka said such fake news was capable of stoking violence and endangering the nation’s democracy.
Featuring on Arise TV “The Morning Show” on Wednesday anchored by Dr Reuben Abati, the Ogun State-born condemned false news attributed to him by some media platforms.
The octogenarian said: “I also want to use this opportunity, if you don’t mind, to warn your audience: Please beware of fake news. A lot of damage is being done by the propagation of fake news.
“Even, as recently as a few days ago. Some verbiage, some garbage, some nauseating news, which you’ve seen many times before have resurrected and attributed to Wole Soyinka. It makes me sick. I do not see why that could not be solved.
“In fact, I think it has reached a stage I’m going to go further. I want to use this opportunity now to announce a reward. I’m not a rich man, but I’m going to announce a reward.
“I look at my account and can afford a thousand dollars to anyone who can finger successfully the author of some of the tracts that are attributed to me over the past six months.
“We have repudiated again and again. Other people (would) come out to say Wole Soyinka never said this. There are some who want to believe it and there are those who have some tractions.
“So, permit me to use you as my advertising board to place a thousand dollars on those (peddling fake news about me).
“I will even go further to raise additional funds for anyone who can please relieve us of false attribution of fake news.”
On the candidacies of Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 polls, the Nobel laureate recalled telling the duo not to run again but should quit the stage for “fresh blood” to steer the affairs of the country.
“I told Atiku when he was contesting and came to see me in my Ikeja office few years ago; he came with Gbenga Daniel, my former governor (of Ogun state).
“I said to him, ‘Listen, it’s about time you people left the stage, why don’t you just go away. We need an infusion of fresh blood into the system’.
“But for some people, maybe they read it as bloodletting. No I said infusion of fresh blood. I said so I cannot support you. I think your generation should quit.
“But he wasn’t the only one. I then sought out the current President-elect, Tinubu and I gave him exactly the same message.
“I said, ‘Whatever you people are planning, I’m convinced that we need the young generation, new thinking, new sensibilities, new energies’,” Soyinka said.
He also declared: “So, why don’t you just leave the stage, let’s look for somebody, a really brilliant individual then use your entire influence to catapult that person to power, and this country will see a massive transformation.
“We spoke for about an hour and a half, and then Bola Tinubu said, ‘No’. He said there were still things he felt he could still contribute.”
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