OAU VC race: Soyinka speaks on indigenes who invaded campus with charms

As anger continues to greet the invasion of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, by indigenes demanding one of them be made the Vice Chancellor, Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has reacted to the development.
The group that dressed in traditional religion regalia had stormed the varsity, chanting incantation and placing ebo (sacrifice) in a strategic place.
Many see this as highly condemnable.
Speaking on the matter, Soyinka said the action was so bad that Ifes who did not agree to it should rise against those involved.
In a conversation with Professor Wale Adebamwi, Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies, Department of Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania, against the backdrop of incessant kidnappings, ritual killings and other vices in Nigeria, he said, “An Ife person wrote me and say, ‘Look at these people disgracing us.’ I told him, ‘Go there and disgrace them. You are an Ife person. You should be in the front line.
“The Ife people should say those people don’t belong to us, we don’t know where they came from. And they should be dealt with ruthlessly. Why should there be an Ife VC anywhere? I just don’t understand what they put in the water these days. It is crazy.”
The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has also condemned the act, although he gave the indication that protest was a legitimate tool.
The monarch said in a statement, “Protest is everybody’s right to make his or her unheard voice to be heard. This is always adopted by professional and academic stakeholders/trade unions, ASUU, NASU, NBA, NANS, religious bodies, political parties and even concerned individuals but it must be done peacefully.
“Over the years, the good people of Ife have been a superb host to the University, even as they enrol their children and equally join qualified hands (regardless of background) to work in the citadel of learning.
“The Ife community is proud to have partnered and still partnering the institution through the House of Oduduwa on viable programmes and projects capable of projecting Ile-Ife to the outside world as an ancient city ready for progress and development,” he stated.
He, however, promised that the good relationship between the town and OAU would remain as strong as ever, particularly to the benefit of the younger ones in and outside the university.
“OAU is Ife, Ife is OAU and we shall continue to cohabit in peace for progress,” the statement read.