Headline of Daily Times newspapers on Thursday, October 9, 1969 captured the release of Nigeria’s Nobel Laureates, Wole Soyinka after his 22 months of imprisonment for advocating for Biafrans, IGBERETV reports.
During the Nigeria/Biafra war, the then head of state, Yakubu Gowon put Soyinka in solitary confinement for two years after Soyinka secretly and unofficially met with the military governor of Eastern Region, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in Enugu in August 1967, to try to avert the civil war.
However, in 2004, Gowon seized the occasion of the banquet organised by the Ogun State government at the auditorium of the Government House, Valley View, Abeokuta, to mark the end of activities for Soyinka’s 70th birthday celebrations to explain and defend his regime.
Gowon told the guests: “When I was Head of State, he (Soyinka) did not want anything in uniform and reports reaching me were that he was doing everything to effect a change of the system.”
“I was told by some people that I should make sure that he (Soyinka) did not circulate much.
On a humorous note, Gowon continued: “At that time, he was very, very young; he had no grey hairs, perhaps what happened to him (his imprisonment) might have caused this his numerous grey hair. Both of us were very young and idealistic at that time and I happened to be the man in charge of Nigeria at that time.”
“The tiny young man was trying everything he could to disrupt the normal process. We sat down and decided he must not circulate anymore because we thought he was then becoming very dangerous to the system, so we proffered what could be done to him. So he was my guest for two years and four months.”
