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  • Insecurity: Nigeria in a war zone – Soyinka

    Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has said the high level of insecurity in the country is so much that people now sleep with one eye open and the other closed.

    The literary icon also said Nigeria is not only at war but also is in a war zone, cautioning that Nigerian leaders must allow decentralization of governance and accept that they have failed.

    Soyinka stated this at the launching of his new novel titled, ‘Chronicles Of The Happiest People On Earth’ held at Terra Kulture Arena, Victoria Island, Lagos.

    Speaking at the book presentation, Soyinka said except “our leaders allow a decentralization of governance and accept that they have failed, we might have a new set of conflagration along different lines unlike before.”

    “I think we are not merely at war, we are in a war zone,” he maintained.

    “The term, one eye open and one eye close has become a common parlance everywhere” he said.

    Asked whether he feels things have changed since independence, the literary icon said nothing has really changed, adding that the more things seem to be changing, the more they remain the same.

    Soyinka also decried the dependence of Nigerians on religion, adding that it reduces our humanity. He also said it is only when Nigerians learn to reduce their total dependence on religion, that is the only way they can habit with it.

  • Lekki killing: Governors must demand withdrawal of soldiers now – Soyinka

    Lekki killing: Governors must demand withdrawal of soldiers now – Soyinka

    Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has asked State Governors where the Federal Government has deployed military to quell protests to demand their withdrawals now to avoid further escalation of crisis.

    Soyinka, in a statement, was responding to massive shooting of #EndSARS protesters by soldiers at the Lekki Toll Gate on Tuesday night, condemning the act.

    Soyinka lamented that the tension in the land had become unimaginable.

    “At that earlier mention Lagos sector, Lekki, where most of the affirmative action gatherings had taken place, soldiers opened fire on unarmed demonstrators, killing and wounding a yet undetermined number. One such extra-judicial killing has drenched the Nigerian flag in the blood of innocents – and not symbolically.

    “The video has, in accustomed parlance, ‘gone viral’. I have spoken by phone to eye-witnesses. One, a noted public figure has shared his first hand testimony on television. The government should cease to insult this nation with petulant denials,” he said.

    READ ALSO Soyinka: Obasanjo is right, Nigeria close to extinction under Buhari
    Soyinka said it was absolutely essential to let this government know that the Army had now replaced SARS in the demonic album of the protesters.

    He said his enquiry so far indicated that the Lagos Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu did not invite in the Army and did not complain of a ‘breakdown in law and order’.

    “Soyinka stated that nevertheless, the Centre had chosen to act in an authoritarian manner and had inflicted a near incurable wound on the community psyche.

    “Need I add that, on arrival in Abeokuta, my home town, I again had to negotiate a road block? That went smoothly enough. I expected it, and have no doubt that more are being erected as this is being written.

    “It is pathetic and unimaginative to claim, as some have done, that the continued protest is hurting the nation’s economy etc. etc. COVID-19 has battered the Nigerian economy – such as it is – for over eight months. Of course it is not easy to bring down COVID under a hail of bullets – human lives are easier target, and there are even trophies to flaunt as evidence of victory – such as the blood-soaked Nigerian flag that one of the victims was waving at the time of his murder,” he said.

    “To the affected governors all over the nation, there is one immediate step to take: demand the withdrawal of those soldiers. Convoke Town Hall meetings as a matter of urgency. 24-hr Curfews are not the solution. Take over the security of your people with whatever resources you can rummage.

    “Substitute community self-policing based on Local Councils, to curb hooligan infiltration and extortionist and destructive opportunism. We commiserate with the bereaved and urge state governments to compensate material losses, wherever,” he added.

    Soyinka said to “commence any process of healing at all – dare one assume that this is the ultimate destination of desire? – the Army must apologize, not merely to the nation but to the global community – the facts are indisputable – you, the military, opened fire on unarmed civilians. There has to be structured restitution and assurance that such aberrations will not again be recorded.

    “Then both governance and its security arms can commence a meaningful, lamentably overdue dialogue with society. Do not attempt to dictate -Dialogue!”

  • Nigeria has always been divided – Presidency replies Soyinka

    Nigeria has always been divided – Presidency replies Soyinka

    The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has said this administration inherited a “terribly” divided country from former president, Goodluck Jonathan, in 2015.

    Adesina, speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, insisted Nigeria has always been divided.

    He was responding to comments made by Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka backing another former President, Olusegun Obasanjo.

    “Nigeria had always been divided. Always. Right from amalgamation in 1914, Nigeria has always been divided.

    “Nigeria is an inconvenient amalgamation but we have worked at it and I tell you that there is no time in the history of this country that the country was not divided but then we had kept at it and we were trying to make it work.

    “As of 2015, when President Buhari came, Nigeria was terribly, terribly divided; divided along religious lines, divided along ethnic lines; divided along language, divided hopelessly, terribly and that is the division that the President had been working at. But you see that a lot of people instead of letting harmony return to this country, thrive and luxuriate in widening the gulf. They play politics with everything,” he said.

  • Obasanjo envious of Buhari – Presidency

    Obasanjo envious of Buhari – Presidency

    The Presidency has debunked assertions that the President Muhmmadu Buhari-led administration has divided Nigeria along fault lines of ethnicity and religion.

    Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity Femi Adesina debunked the claims on Wednesday on a Channels Television political and current affairs programme, “Politics Today”.

    The Presidential spokesman was responding to issues surrounding recent comments by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka.

    He faulted those blaming President Buhari for the division they had pointed out.

    Adesina said: “If some opinions concluded that Nigeria is divided, then it is a phenomenon that had been well pronounced over the years, citing past comments of both Chief Obasanjo and Prof Soyinka, identifying the same faults.

    According to him, the unity of the country depends on the resolve of all Nigerians to come together to accept each other as equals, with equal rights and admitting that no group could be wished away.

    “So, if they say Nigeria is divided today, it’s because Nigeria has always been divided and all efforts to unite Nigeria and Nigerians have not worked.

    “When Nigerians come to a decision point that we must live together, we can’t wish anybody away; we can’t wish any ethnicity away; we can’t wish any religion away, then we will work towards being a nation.

    “Prof Soyinka delivered a lecture around 2010/2011, when he said Nigeria was not a nation, that at best Nigeria is a conglomeration of different ethnic nationalities, but in terms of the definition of a nation, he said Nigeria was not a nation.

    “Now the question is, was President Buhari in power then in 2010/2011 when he delivered that lecture and said Nigeria was not a nation?

    “So, Nigeria has always been divided, the onus is on us all to make our country work and those who continue to harp on division are part of the problem because the harmony that we should arrive at as a country will continue to elude us,” he queried.

    Adesina said the literary icon had never pretended to be a fan of the President – from the days Buhari was military head of state.

    When asked if the Presidency had been fair to former President Obasanjo by calling him ‘Divider-in-Chief’ for expressing his opinion about current happenings in the country, Adesina hit the former President harder by suggesting that he had spoken in recent times like he might be jealous of President Buhari.

    “Some time – either late last year or early this year, I watched a programme attributed to the former President when he said that he had ruled Nigeria the longest; that he did three years of military rule, he did eight years as a civilian President, that nobody else can achieve that status and that reputation.

    “I think it was beneath the former President to have said that because what do you have in this life that you haven’t been given? There’s nothing you have that you have not been given. All that we have is given us from above. If you rule the country for three years as military and eight years as civilian, it’s nothing to boast about.

    “For the former President to have said nobody will attain that status of ruling this country for eleven years, I think it was beneath his status.

    “So, the fact the President Buhari himself has done military, he ruled for 20 months, then he’s doing eight years, the former President may be feeling, probably he’s coming close to me. I think he didn’t need to say what he said in the first place, but then, in the history of the country, President Obasanjo has his place. That is enough. He will continue to have our respect.

    “Don’t forget, in 2018, when he wrote that letter and he said President Buhari, as a horse rider, must now dismount, the President particularly told me… “he (Buhari) said, Adesina, don’t say a word, don’t respond to him.”

    On suggestions that President Buhari might be losing his support base, he said: “That is not supported by statistics. If you look at the margin of victory in 2015 and compare it with the margin of victory in 2019, what you have said is not supported by statistics. The President had a wider margin in 2019. So, that can only be conjectured, it is not supported by statistics.”

  • Soyinka: ‘I’m not Obasanjo’s fan, but I agree that Nigeria under Buhari is on edge of total collapse’

    Soyinka: ‘I’m not Obasanjo’s fan, but I agree that Nigeria under Buhari is on edge of total collapse’

    Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, has said the country is more divided as never before under the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Soyinka in a statement signed from his Autonomous Residence of Ijegba, Idi-Aba Estate, Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Tuesday titled, “Between ‘Dividers-in-chief’ and Dividers-in-law,” said though not a fan of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, but embraced any accurate reading of this nation as a contraption teetering on the edge of total collapse.

    Obasanjo last week said the country was slowly becoming a failed state and more divided under the Buhari regime. But the presidency reacted to the comment by describing the ex-president as a ‘Divider-in-chief.”

    Soyinka said, “I am notoriously no fan of Olusegun Obasanjo, General, twice former president and co-architect with other past leaders of the crumbling edifice that is still generously called Nigeria. I have no reasons to change my stance on his record. Nonetheless, I embrace the responsibility of calling attention to any accurate reading of this nation from whatever source, as a contraption teetering on the very edge of total collapse. We are close to extinction as a viable comity of peoples, supposedly bound together under an equitable set of protocols of co-habitation, capable of producing its own means of existence, and devoid of a culture of sectarian privilege and will to dominate.”

    The Nobel laureate stated that on Africa Day, May 2019, organised by the United Bank of Africa, he similarly seized an opening to direct the attention of this government to warnings by the ‘Otta farmer’ over the self-destruct turn that the nation had taken, urging the wisdom of heeding the message, even while remaining chary of the messenger.

    The Akogun of Isara said, “That advice appears to have fallen on deaf ears. In place of reasoned response and openness to some serious dialogue, what this nation has been obliged to endure has been insolent distractions from garrulous and coarsened functionaries, apologists and sectarian opportunists.

    “The nation is divided as never before, and this ripping division has taken place under the policies and conduct of none other than President Buhari– does that claim belong in the realms of speculation? Does anyone deny that it was this president who went to sleep while communities were consistently ravaged by cattle marauders, were raped and displaced in their thousands and turned into beggars all over the landscape? Was it a different president who, on being finally persuaded to visit a scene of carnage, had nothing more authoritative to offer than to advice the traumatised victims to learn to live peacefully with their violators? And what happened to the Police Chief who had defied orders from his Commander-in-Chief to relocate fully to the trouble spot – he came, saw, and bolted, leaving the ‘natives’ to their own devices. Any disciplinary action taken against ‘countryman’? Was it a spokesman for some ghost president who chortled in those early, yet controllable stages of now systematised mayhem, gleefully dismissed the mass burial of victims in Benue State as a “staged show” for international entertainment? Did the other half of the presidential megaphone system not follow up – or was it, precede? – with the wisdom that they, the brutalised citizenry, should learn to bow under the yoke and negotiate, since “only the living” can enjoy the dividends of legal rights?”

  • Buhari’s ‘failed’ government conniving with NASS to revive rejected Water Resources Bill – Soyinka

    Buhari’s ‘failed’ government conniving with NASS to revive rejected Water Resources Bill – Soyinka

    …Says FG will soon add rain to Exclusive List

    …condemns DSS attacks, killing of IPOB members

    Nobel laureate and elder statesman, Prof. Wole Soyinka has berated the President Muhammadu Buhari led Federal Government and National Assembly for returning a rejected bill, the National Water Resources Bill for reconsideration and possible passage to law.

    According to reports, the House of Representatives on July 23, 2020, referred the National Water Resources Bill 2020 to a “committee of the whole,” for third reading and passage. The bill was widely rejected in 2018 when it became public knowledge.

    Soyinka, in a statement on Thursday titled, ‘MLK’s mighty stream of righteousness,’ kicked against the return of the bill and the killing of some members of the Indigenous People of Biafra by officials of the Department of State Services in Enugu on Sunday.

    He said, “A roundly condemned project blasted out of sight by public outrage one or two years ago, is being exhumed and sneaked back into service by none other than a failed government, and with the consent of a body of people, supposedly elected to serve as custodians of the rights, freedoms and existential exigencies of millions. This bill – Bill on National Water resources 2020 – is designed to hand Aso Rock absolute control over the nation’s entire water resources, both over and underground.

    “The basic facilitator of human existence, water – forget for now all about streams of righteousness! – is to become exclusive to one centralised authority. It will be doled out, allocated through power directives from a desensitised rockery that cannot even boast of the water divining wand of the prophet Moses. If the current presiding genius–and this applies equally to all his predecessors without exception – had a structured vision of Nigerian basic entitlements, Nigerians would by now, be able to boast the means of fulfilling even that minimalist item of COVID-19 protocols that call for washing one’s hands under running water! As for potable water, for drinking and cooking, let us not even begin to address such extra-terrestrial undertaking!

    “What next for the exclusive list? The rains? I declare myself in full agreement with virtually every pronouncement of alarm, outrage, opprobrium and repudiation that has been heaped upon this bill and its parentage, both at its first outing and since this recent re-emergence. It is time to move beyond denunciations however and embark on practical responses for its formal deactivation and permanent internment. Let all retain in their minds that, from the same source that preached the “streams of righteousness” is encountered the promise of “no more floods, the fire next time.”

    Dwelling on the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement provoked by the racial killing of a black man by a United States cop and Martin Luther King’s speech to discard racism, the elder statesman noted that in the past few days he mulled over the watershed episode and was compelled to rephrase: Do Nigerian lives matter? Do farmers’ lives matter? Do IPOB lives matter? Do innocent lives matter? And most disturbingly: Do future lives matter?

    He added, “One passage in Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” has leapt to the forefront as a warning that relates to that final interrogatory – do future lives matter ? And it does so in a most literal manner, one that MLK could never have envisioned! It persists in echoing through the mind, reinforced by the recent killings of innocent humanity – mostly youths — in Enugu, by state forces, under the pretext – shall we presume? – of preventing secessionist agitations?

    The Nobel laureate further said the promulgators of the obscenity, high and low, should understand that the placid waters they think to control unjustly and grotesquely, would turn to be Martin Luther King’s “mighty stream of righteousness” that would overwhelm and sweep them off their complacent, and increasingly loathsome sectarian and conspiratorial heights.

    He said, “One polluted stream of human existence compounds the next. A violation here joins forces with its tributary of resentment there yonder, all seemingly unconnected. Martin Luther King’s streams of righteousness turn into a mighty torrent of repulse that overwhelms the perpetrators but, alas, takes down much else as collateral, irreparable damage. That is the only cause for regret and – restraint. Hence our duty to position that anguished question frontally, and call the world to witness our open propagation of that challenge: Do future lives matter?

    “Let Buhari and his myrmidons ponder that question in the deepest recesses of their hearts and minds. They should not bequeath to future generations the harvest of the grapes of wrath!”

  • I was disappointed by Achebe’s comment on my Nobel prize – Soyinka

    I was disappointed by Achebe’s comment on my Nobel prize – Soyinka

    Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, has said he was disappointed by a comment made by the late renowned novelist, Prof Chinua Achebe, shortly after he (Soyinka) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986.

    In a conversation with an American-based Nigerian novelist, Okey Ndibe, which was aired on Channels Television’s Book Club, Soyinka said he considered the particular remark by Achebe uncalled for and disappointing.

    Ndibe had, during the conversation with Soyinka, recalled how Achebe, at one time, said, “The Nobel Prize did not make one the Asiwaju of African Literature.”

    He then asked Soyinka how he took that statement at the time.

    Responding, Soyinka said, “The subject was not even literature when he (Achebe) made that statement and so I was disappointed that he created a nexus between my normal sociopolitical life and my normal way of articulating an opinion.

    “It was almost like because I won the Nobel Prize, I have no right to offer, to do what I used to do before all my life. I responded to it, even though I wanted to make light of it. I was a little bit disappointed and I didn’t see the necessity; that particular subject, which was under contention, didn’t relate to literature. So, it was like, oh, am I now to carry this burden for the rest of my life? That people will think I am doing what I used to do before simply because I now have a Nobel Prize.”

    Asked what he felt about how literary enthusiasts often segregate themselves into either Soyinka camp or Achebe camp, Soyinka said it boiled down to “ignorance”.

    “Everybody feels they have a right to pronounce authoritatively, not only on the products but on the producers of the products and their positions in society,” he said.

  • [Video] Wole Soyinka drops bombshell: Buhari is not in charge of Nigeria

    [Video] Wole Soyinka drops bombshell: Buhari is not in charge of Nigeria

    Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has said that he does not believe President Muhammadu Buhari is in charge of the country.

    This is coming days after a retired colonel and former military administrator of Kaduna, Umar Dangiwa, wrote an open letter to Buhari over the president’s habit of appointing people from his section of the country into office.

    Reacting to this in an interview on PlusTv Africa’s ‘One-On-One’ on Thursday, the playwright and political activist said the answer to the nation’s problem is decentralisation.

    The renowned writer commended the former military administrator who has a tendency to hit the nail hard and go straight to the point factually without self-interest.

    He said: “Umar Dangiwa is one of the really serious letter writers without self-interest and when I saw this I was appalled but I shouldn’t have been appalled in the first place. I was appalled by the silence that followed this revelation. I think those who are responsible for this criminal lopsidedness should be punished. It is not sufficient just to discuss it. It’s criminal.

    “I have said this before. I don’t believe there is really anybody in charge in Aso Rock. I’m sorry to say this. I’ve been studying the trend over the past year and a half and I believe this president is not in charge of this nation, in so many aspects and directions.

    “I’m convinced he’s not really and totally with it.

    “It’s so serious. It is not the fact alone, we know the history of this. We know what it has caused the nation, and we know it isn’t over yet. And you say are launching an enquiry. That’s not enough. This man is not in charge.”

    Watch video:

  • On COVID-19: Trust doctors, scientists not fiction writers like Soyinka’ Presidency tells Nigerians

    Garba Shehu, special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity, has called on Nigerians to disregard Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka’s reservations on the lockdown in Lagos, Abuja and Ogun states.

    Recall that TheNewsGuru(TNG) had earlier published a report detailing how Soyinka faulted the Buhari-led government for disregarding democratic process in enacting the lockdown in the said states.

    Reacting to Soyinka’s remarks, Shehu said he (Soyinka) only had qualifications in English literature and not medicine or science, stating that he does not qualify to be judged as a professional on the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

    The presidential aide said “perhaps Wole Soyinka may write a play on the coronavirus pandemic, after this emergency is over. In the meantime, we ask the people of Nigeria to trust the words of our doctors and scientists – and not fiction writers – at this time of national crisis.’’

    “Yesterday, the esteemed Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka made comments on the legal status and description of 14-day lockdown announced by President Muhammadu Buhari,” Shehu wrote in a statement.

    “Professor Soyinka is not a medical professor. His qualifications are in English literature, and his prizes are for writing books and plays for theatres. He is of course entitled to his opinions – but that is exactly all they are: semantics, not science. They cannot – and should not – therefore be judged as professional expertise in this matter in any shape or form.

    “Across the world – from parts of the United States and China, to countries including the United Kingdom and France, government – mandated lockdowns are in place to slow and defeat the spread of coronavirus.

    “All have been declared, and all have been made necessary, based on medical and scientific evidence. The guidance of the Nigerian Government’s medical specialists is to advise the same.”

  • Soyinka faults Buhari: Lockdown of Lagos, Ogun over coronavirus unconstitutional

    Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka on Monday described the total lockdown of Lagos and Ogun States by President Muhammadu Buhari over coronavirus as illegal and unconstitutional.

    Soyinka, in a statement, said the president did not have the power to unilaterally lockdown a state, as there was no war or emergency.

    The Nobel laureate, in the statement titled: Between COVID and Constitutional Encroachment,” said constitutional lawyers and our elected representatives should kindly step into “this and educate us, mere lay minds.

    The worst development I can conceive us is to have a situation where rational measures for the containment of the Corona pandemic are rejected on account of their questionable genesis.

    “This is a time for Unity of Purpose, not nitpicking dissensions. So, before this becomes a habit, a question: does President Buhari have the powers to close down state borders? We want clear answers. We are not in a war emergency.

    “Appropriately focussed on measures for the saving lives, and committed to making sacrifices for the preservation of our communities, we should nonetheless remain alert to any encroachment on constitutionally demarcated powers. We need to exercise collective vigilance, and not compromise the future by submitting to interventions that are not backed by law and constitution.”

    According to Soyinka, a president who had been conspicuously AWOL, the Rip van Winkle of Nigerian history, was now alleged to have woken up after a prolonged siesta, and begun to issue orders.

    He asked: “Who actually instigates these orders anyway? From where do they really emerge? What happens when the conflict of the orders with state measures, the product of a systematic containment strategy – `including even trial-and-error and hiccups – undertaken without let or leave of the Centre. So far, the anti-COVID-19 measures have proceeded along the rails of decentralised thinking, multilateral collaboration and technical exchanges between states.

    “The Centre is obviously part of the entire process, and one expects this to be the norm, even without the epidemic’s frontal assault on the Presidency itself. Indeed, the Centre is expected to drive the overall effort, but in collaboration, with extraordinary budgeting and refurbishing of facilities.

    “The universal imperative and urgency of this affliction should not become an opportunistic launch pad for a sneak RE-CENTRALISATION, no matter how seemingly insignificant its appearance. I urge governors and legislators to be especially watchful. No epidemic is ever cured with constitutional piracy. It only lays down new political viruses for the future.”