Green Card: Reno Omokri Blasts Wole Soyinka for Calling Nigerians Illiterate

Wole Soyinka

Reactions have continued to trail recent comments by Professor Wole Soyinka on the issue of the “green card” turned “Jimmy Carter’s card” where he was quoted as calling Nigerians illiterate for “invading his privacy” over his personal matter. A former presidential aide Reno Omokri took to his facebook page to take a swipe on the Nobel laureate, according to Reno:

Wole Soyinka, a public figure who is the chief poke noser into the affairs of other public figures to the extent of calling a First Lady a ‘hippo’ is angry at invasion of his privacy! You publicly boasted that you would destroy (not throw away but destroy) your Green Card and now you are angry at Nigerians for invading your private matters that you yourself brought into the public domain! And he insults us by calling us ‘illiterate Nigerians’! That we don’t have a Nobel Prize does not mean that we don’t know how to reason. You cant boast publicly about a thing and expect it to be privately discussed. Who cares if you change residency from Nigeria? When you were gone we survived. Even with you and Buhari, we will still survive!

Nigerian Nobel prize-winning author Wole Soyinka came back in the news when he said he have “thrown his green card away”, looking to redeem himself over his pre-election vow to “tear” his green card should Donald Trump win the US presidential elections.
Ever since November 9th when Donald Trump was announced president elect of the United States, the literary icon has been in the eye of the social media perhaps looking forward to see him “tear up” his green card, much like Olusegun Obasanjo did to his PDP membership card during Nigeria’s general election campaign. But then Soyinka announced that he have simply “threw the green card away”, a departure from a more direct “tearing” it openly.
Professor Wole Soyinka have took on Nigerian media earlier on, saying the media was not there when he made the comment to destroy his green card if Donald Trump wins neither did they contact him after Trump worn. But he also said the media cannot ‘stampede’ him into doing their bidding, unfortunately it is not the media bidding him to keep his promise, he is morally bound to be a man of honor and keep his words.
Although Soyinka have earlier slated January 20th after Donald Trump’s swearing in to make good his vow, it seems that he is nolonger in the mood to wait.
But Nigerians in the social media disagree with the latest development, insisting that “throwing the green card away” can mean a lot of things.
Here are some reactions: