Soyinka condemns Jonathan’s ‘impunity’, likens president to ‘Nebuchadnezzar’
Category: Nigerian National News
Source: Premium Times
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| Prof Wole Soyinka |
Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, has lambasted President Goodluck
Jonathan for allowing what he called a reign of impunity, the latest
being police siege on the National Assembly.
Mr. Soyinka said the latest action of Suleiman Abba, the Inspector
General of Police, against members of the House of Representatives was
an “unambiguous” declaration of war against the people.
At a press conference in Lagos he titled King Nebuchadnezzar – The
Reign of Impunity, Mr. Soyinka said that the battle line had been drawn
and Nigerians must decide whether to submit or resist to the current
democratic dispensation.
“I shall not insist that the biblical figure of Nebuchadnezzar is
uniquely apt for the pivotal figure of the ‘democratic’ history in the
making at this moment,” said Mr. Soyinka. “For one thing, Nebu was a
nation builder and a warrior. One could argue even more convincingly for
the figure of Balthazar, his successor, or indeed Emperor Nero as
reference point – you all remember him – the emperor who took to
fiddling while Rome was burning.
“However you should easily recall why I opted for King Nebu – the
figure that currently sits on the top of our political pile himself
evoked it, albeit in a context that virtuously disclaimed any
similarities, even tendencies. Perhaps he meant it at the time when he
claimed: ‘I am no Nebuchadnezzar.’ Perhaps not. One judges leaders on
acts however, not pronouncements, which are often as reliable as
electoral promises.”
Mr. Soyinka said that it was left for Nigerians to decide to revert to the ‘Abacharian status of glorified slaves.”
“The praetorian guards have been let loose – to teach the rabble their place,” he said.
“The recent choice of a new leader for the guard was clearly no
accident, and this hitherto unknown enforcer, one Suleiman Abba, has
wasted no time in inaugurating a season of brutish power. When a
people’s elected emissaries are disenfranchised, cast out like vagrants
and resort to scaling fences to engage in their designated functions,
the people get the message.
“However, the choice is always there, and each choice comes at a cost. It is either we pay now, or pay later.”
Mr. Soyinka also said that President Goodluck Jonathan had continued to surprise Nigerians in ways “few could have conjectured.”
“Peaking at his own personalised example where he set the law of
arithmetic on its head – I refer to the split in the Governors’ Forum,
and his ‘formal’ recognition of the minority will in a straightforward,
peer election – democracy has been rendered meaningless where it should
be most fervently exemplified.
“Nothing is more unworthy of leadership than to degrade a system by
which one attains fulfilment, and this is what the nation has witnessed
time and time again in various parts of the nation, the recent affront
against the legislative chamber being only the most blatant and
unconscionable…
“It is a warning. His choices for the occupancy of crucial public
positions – such as the protective arm of the nation – constitutes an
even more immediate and constant public alert. The signals are ominous –
for and beyond 2015.”
Source: Premium Times
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