Alamieyeseigha’s pardon, symbol of corrupt mentality — Soyinka

The Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has described the state pardon granted a former governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, by President Goodluck Jonathan, as an act of impunity and a symbol of corrupt mentality.

Prof. Soyinka, who made his feelings known, yesterday, in Lagos, while speaking with the press, lamented that corruption remained Nigeria’s intractable challenge, which some people in the corridors of power were benefiting from.

He said: “I want to announce that I want to join the band of such ignorant people.I am not aware that I am an ignorant person, but I am happy to be counted among such people.”

The Nobel laureate also took a swipe at the controversial N4billion being budgeted for the construction of the First Lady Mansion project. He described the move as part of the corrupt mentality currently plaguing the country.

Continuing, Soyinka described the office of the First Ladies as constitutional ghosts, saying, “President Goodluck Jonathan must be stoutly applauded for declaring that he cannot grant amnesty to ghosts. Let me add also that you cannot make budgetary allocations to ghosts.

“Like ghost workers, through whose invisible entrails billions have vanished into Nigerian burial grounds, First Ladies are nothing but constitutional ghosts, and that means that their pet projects wherever they lay claims on national budgeting, individually or collectively, however, lofty sounding, are nothing but spectral emanations, already dead on arrival.”