Did Soyinka Reveal Too Much About Tinubu’s Helath Status Whilst Reacting To Pyrates’ Video?

The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu and members of his campaign team are reportedly angry with the response of Professor Wole Soyinka to a viral video of members of the Pyrates Confraternity mocking the former Lagos State governor’s ill-health.

Naija News reports that in a viral video, members of the Confraternity were seen gyrating to a song that mocked the former Lagos State governor for a speech he made in June in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Tinubu had during the controversial speech stated 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’”.

Reacting to the video, Soyinka, who was among the ‘magnificent seven’ that founded Pyrates Confraternity at the University College Ibadan, had slammed the Pyrates for mocking Tinubu’s ill-health.

Soyinka had said, “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 designate 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.