April 29, 2011 12:30PM |  print  email   |
Following the post-election violence that occurred in the northern region of the country, Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, has expressed dismay at the threat to the unity of the nation.
Mr Soyinka made this known at a press conference in Lagos on Thursday. He expressed displeasure at the “unbelievable carnage and waste of human lives” that targeted certain tribes, religion and, in particular, youth corps members in some parts of the country.
The author, who recently withdrew from public life, said he had to make this known because he has a responsibility to address the violence that greeted the presidential election, which he described as “the decimation of humanity.” “The non-sadistic and satisfaction of the killings, the sending out the sultan from his palace, the threats to members of the PDP to get out of the town...this makes me wonder whether we all have an agenda in mind for Nigeria, whether we all have a project for this country such as the amelioration of the human condition,” he said.
Masterminded violence
According to Mr Soyinka, the “killings were done on foundation of lies, misinformation and wrong information.” “In my view, this violence was planned before hand and it is the responsibility of all and not just the government to denounce the killings in strong terms,” he said.
Not mentioning names, he decried the reactions of certain leaders over the unfortunate incidence. “I did not detect any vestige of remorse from the expressions of these leaders,” he said. “There was a complete disjunction of what the mouth was saying and what the body of these people were saying.”
Message for Jonathan
He congratulated President Goodluck Jonathan on his win at the polls, which he confirmed was credible due the monitoring and collation of results from every polling unit in the country by the Reclaim Naija group, which he was involved with. According to him, the figures presented by the electoral body for the presidential result “did not differ much from what Reclaim Naija got”, adding that the group has developed “the best monitoring resources in this country if not in Africa.”
He, however, urged the president to hit the ground running. “This is not a matter of goodluck which cannot carry you through the real crises that envelopes this nation,” he said. “You must not use a piece-meal but a holistic manner, otherwise I greatly fear for the continual of this country. The nation begun to fail as a nation the moment parents fear to let their children go to certain parts of the country.”
Message to Ogun people
In a congratulatory message to the people of Ogun State, Mr Soyinka congratulated them for voting of the ruling party, which he claims has brought fetish government into the state. “At long last, you have redeemed yourself,” he said. “It’s about time Ogun State opens the gate of democracy for the entire country and chase out the fetish people.”
He also called for an investigation into the murder of a former gubernatorial aspirant in the state, Dipo Dina.
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