By Monsuru Olowoopejo

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, yesterday, broke silence over the aircraft seat controversy between him and a young man, admitting that he sat on a wrong seat.

Professor Wole Soyinka

Soyinka’s broke silence barely five days after a young man instructed him to stand up from his allotted seat which was beside the aircraft window.

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While admitting taking wrong seat on board in a statement made available to Vanguard, he urged that airline management to impose fines on passengers that occupy wrong seat while on board.

The Nobel laureate noted that such policy would further provide additional funds for airline operators in delivering humanitarian assistance globally.

Wole Soyinka’s hardtalk(Opens in a new browser tab)

He expressed worries that while airline operators exhort passengers often to raise funds for humanitarian services, this measure could further assist them in getting more funds for these services.

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“I don’t know how much airlines succeed in raising for their charity drives through those envelopes they distribute to passengers into which their captive donors are exhorted to deposit their loose change before disembarking.

“Such monies are then distributed to worthy causes all over the world, especially in the pursuit of health. What I am convinced of is that they would generate a hundred times more if they were more creative.

“For instance, they could impose a fine on passengers who take the wrong seat on boarding, even for a second. One can only rejoice in the thought of such benefits to humanity in its efforts to eradicate all kinds of diseases, especially malnutrition, and ensure the supply of nutrients that prevent the premature onset of brain impairment.

“Those who permit themselves to be persuaded, even for one second that I, Wole Soyinka, having wrongly identified a seat number like millions of travellers all the time, and all over the world, would then attempt to consolidate the error in any form, through act, word, or gesture, qualify to be the first beneficiaries of this vastly improved humanitarian policy,” he added