Former governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, said on Monday that Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, was never a chairman of the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding.
The UNESCO-approved centre has been a subject of litigation but the hearing which was scheduled to commence on Monday (yesterday), has been postponed to November 11.
Counsel for the CBCIU board, headed by the former governor, Mr. Adetunji Muraina, in an interview with journalists at the court premises, said Soyinka was never the chairman of the board.
He said this in a reaction to the question asking him to comment on the decision of Soyinka who announced his resignation as the CBCIU chairman.
The CBCIU chairmanship has sparked a verbal war between the Soyinka and Oyinlola, with both of them laying claim to the chairmanship of separate boards for the UNESCO-approved centre.
While documents of the agreement that established the centre make Oyinlola the permanent chairman of the board, the Rauf Aregbesola administration had established another board and chosen Soyinka as its chairman, upon assuming office as the state governor.
The CBCIU counsel said, “My reaction is that the professor (Soyinka) is never a chairman of the board of the centre. We have filed our processes before the court and we are bound by them. “
He described the statement credited to Aregbesola, who commented on the resignation of Soyinka, as contemptuous.
Soyinka had on Saturday announced his resignation, but Aregbesola, in a statement issued by his media aide, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, rejected the resignation and appealed to the general public to prevail on the Nobel Laureate to rescind his decision.
The governor said no individual could hold a public office in perpetuity, adding that the law which vested the perpetual chairmanship of the centre on Oyinlola had been amended.
The statement read, “Yes, Wole Soyinka has resigned, but he himself has conceded the fact that the Governor must accept it.
“We cannot accept the resignation even though we hold him in the highest of esteem, because of the responsibilities attached to his chairmanship of the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding, which is beyond him and even beyond us.
“The law which vested the perpetual chairmanship of the Centre on the former Governor has been amended through the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding (Amendment) Law 2012.
“Wherever the public interest is, personal interest suffers, diminishes or does not exist at all.”
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