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Tag: Soyinka

  • Soyinka urges Fed Govt to seek foreign assistance to end killings

    •‘Killings are ethnic cleansing’
    •Ortom: it’s return of Jihad

    Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has advised the Federal Government to solicit the support of the international community to combat insecurity in the country.

    Soyinka spoke yesterday in Makurdi. He was in the Benue State capital for the 35th anniversary of Senator Suemo Chia’s novel, Adan Wade Kohol Ga, written in Tiv.

    He said: “If the government cannot cope, it should not shy away from asking for international help”, adding: “people are dying, this government cannot cope, please just ask for international help and I know they’re ready and willing to come to our aid.”

    Soyinka said: “Instead of treating the country of its cancerous disease rather, it is ringworm that is being treated.

    “The killings that are taking place in Benue and other states are targeted at ethnic cleansing and there is no any other word to describe it than that,” he said.

    Soyinka said that instead of hunting animals for food, the killer herdsmen hunted for human beings, adding that the act was barbaric.

    He said some people wanted to change the narrative that the killer herdsmen were Libyans, querying “who brought them, who kept them and who funds them?’’

    The renowned writer noted that herdsmen “kill and occupy people’s communities which clearly reveal their actual motive’’.

    He urged the Federal Government to give marching orders to the herdsmen that were occupying communities that were not theirs to vacate them in 48 hours.

    “We have to come together to probe the ugly situation so that the impunity which is going on in the country for long will stop.

    “If the President had visited any community where lives were lost due to the killings perpetrated by the armed herdsmen and give warnings, the killings would have stopped since,” he said.

    According to Soyinka, the killings are sponsored by desperate politicians because of their selfish motives, and the killings are not sporadic but well-coordinated and the people behind the killings should be identified for prosecution.

    He said that the phenomenon was not new because it happened in Rwanda and other crisis-ridden countries, “so Nigerians ought to have learnt from Rwanda to avoid the situation turning to an epidemic’’.

    Ortom thanked the Nobel laureate for the solidarity visitadding that he had told the world what the state was going through, particularly its security challenges.

    “What is happening to us is not a hidden agenda because the herdsmen, through Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, had said at several fora that they want to take over the Benue valley.

    “The attacks are also the continuation of the jihad which was truncated by the Benue people in 1804,” Ortom said.

    He said he had all evidence to buttress what he was saying and that armed herdsmen were perpetrating the heinous acts with impunity.

    The governor deplored the latest case of the killing of people who attended the mass burial of the two priests and 17 other parishioners, by herdsmen on Tuesday while returning home.

    The burial took place at the Se Sugh Maria Pilgrimage Centre, Ayati, Gwer Local Government Area of the state.

    “We will continue to demand for justice and believe that security agencies will live up to their responsibility by nipping the killings in the bud,” Ortom said.

  • Soyinka honoured with literary home-coming

    Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka was yesterday treated to a nostalgic literary home coming.

    The occasion was the second Chinua Achebe International Conference of the Institute of African Studies in the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN).

    Soyinka attested that it was a home coming for him, recalling his days with the late poet, Christopher Okigbo in the early days of the university.

    He said he considered himself a foundation student of UNN and extolled the university’s academic prowess.

    “I am one of the key roots of UNN”, Soyinka said, expressing happiness that the campus still retained its natural serenity.

    Keynote speaker Prof. Hope Eghagha said the conference provided a platform of the past with the present to know where the rain started beating Nigeria.

    Eghagha, who spoke on “Wole Soyinka and the Literature of Commitment”, noted that whereas Soyinka is a literary colossus of the nation, Chinua Achebe was troubled with problems of Nigeria.

    “But 25 years after the book, there is no sign that we have learnt anything from the book. We need to commit literature to progressive thinking, sitting on the fence won’t be helpful,” Eghagha said.

    Chairman of the conference opening and ex-Governor of Anambra State Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife regretted that the country has got to its lowest level, but that people like Soyinka and his colleagues were making efforts to reunite the country.

    Organiser of the conference and Director of UNN’s Institute of African Studies Prof. Emeka Nwabueze said the institution chose to honour Soyinka with the conference despite his many international honours.

    “Soyinka has been celebrated elsewhere but we felt that it will not be enough till we celebrate him here in UNN,” Nwabueze said.

    Lagos State Commissioner for Information  Kehinde Bamigbetan represented Governor Akinwumi Ambode as the chief guest of honour.

  • Gowon, Obasanjo, Madiba, Soyinka: extraordinary encounters…

    Just for the records. There are meetings, and there are meetings. Some stand out, others are easily forgotten, never to be remembered, or recorded.  Even those that stand out may eventually get obliterated, blurred by the burden of time. Or else get remembered, only by Proustian involuntary memory. An event takes places, an experience occurs, it is lost, swept into the so-called oblivion. And then, all of a sudden, something happens! It could be a sensation, a sight, a taste… It then triggers a recall, the reminder. Out of the blues the past is brought back, a scene, a setting, a slice of life, a whole period of existence, and, voilà, time lost becomes time regained. For Marcel Proust, no amount of attempt to resort to, or rely on what he calls from intellectual memory can achieve such a feat.

    Thanks to involuntary memory, some of the not so common encounters of a distant past come calling, almost as if they happened only yesterday. Events, experiences stand out in the mind, and sharing them today, no matter how old, how late, appears imperative, for record purposes, but especially for the lessons to be learnt.

    Mandela and the cleaner

    Our first instance of involuntary remembrance of things past centres on the Tanzanian conference town of Arusha. It involved Madiba, the world-renowned South African apartheid prisoner and later president, Nelson Mandela. The Burundi (essentially Hutu/Tutsi) peace negotiations, based on an initiative of former Tanzanian president, Walimu Julius Nyerere, had just come to an end in August, 2000. Among the dignitaries and  witnesses present  at the closing  ceremony and signing of the agreement to  mark the conclusion of the UN- supported process, along with Madiba, were the then Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, and the former American president, Bill Clinton, some   South African  and Tanzanian generals and top UN  officials.

    At the end of the closing ceremony on that historic August day, the dignitaries walked down from the high table towards the exit at the back of the hall. Yours truly, one of the Translation Revisors recruited by the UN for the process, was at the back row of the hall, in the very edifice that also served as the Rwanda International Criminal Tribunal (ICTR) premises. As they got  close to the back of the hall, a worker, most probably Tanzanian, continued with his cleaning chore, his back turned on the group, apparently unimpressed, not intimidated,  by  the presence  of these ‘big men’. At that point iconic  statesman Mandela , who had seen it all and had dealt with all manner and categories of human beings  in his long sojourn on mother earth, noticed the nonchalant, somewhat discourteous man, moved closer to him and said  ‘Good day, my friend. You don’t want to greet us?’ stretching out his hand in a gesture of friendliness. The man was thoroughly embarrassed. As for me, I was happy to have a warm handshake with the icon, an honour which the paparazzi did not fail to capture.

    Soyinka’s English

    The next instance of things past remembered, not necessarily in chronological order thanks to involuntary memory, took place here at home. It was in the days leading to the hosting of the 2nd World Black  and African Festival of Arts and Culture, first  tagged FESTAC 76, and later FESTAC 77 owing to its  postponement. That festival, hosted by Nigeria in the days of the so-called oil boom, at a time  when we told the  world that our  problem was actually not finding the money, qua foreign currency, but indeed knowing how  to spend it…

    On 1st October, 1976, that year’s Independence Day was celebrated, with the benefit hindsight and involuntary memory aiding, in pomp and pageantry. A well-attended cocktail party took place that evening on the gardens of the State House Marina and we were honoured to be present. There we were, in the company of a few international officials including the then head of the Cocoa Producers, a Senegalese, a few fellow translator/interpreters.

    In the course of the party the host of the event, the then military Head of State, decided to be courteous and move round to greet some of the guests he could reach. As he descended the steps of that part of the premises with his spouse, he was followed by some officials, aides and of course security operatives. The group got to us, to my back, and I turned round to greet. On seeing me, the soldier number one citizen thought he had seen that face before. He had indeed seen it some months earlier. In the months leading to the opening of FESTAC 77, its Secretary General, Mr Alioune Diop of Senegal, had requested and obtained an appointment to meet the Nigerian Head of State. He had a message from his President, Leopold Sedar Senghor, the famous poet and apostle of Negritude. Diop, then the FESTAC number two in command – Navy Captain Promise Fingesi was then the minister and head of FESTAC – was accompanied by Wole Soyinka, then a Consultant to FESTAC and through whose goodwill and close friendship with our number one citizen the appointment was secured. I went with the duo to Dodan Barracks, the equivalent of today’s Aso Villa, as interpreter, since Alioune Diop was French-speaking.

    At that October 1, 1976, Independence Day cocktail, the Head of State, on taking a second look at me, asked: ‘What do you do for a living?’ I replied that I was a Lecturer at the University of Lagos but was then on secondment in charge of Translation and Documentation at the International Secretariat of FESTAC. On hearing that, the future chief host of FESTAC 77 asked: ‘How is the situation at FESTAC? Any problems?’ And I seized the opportunity to tell him that although all was well we were looking for Francophone translators to translate documents into French, since Nigerians and Anglophones should normally only translate into English. On hearing that he retorted that Nigerians could handle that, after all: ‘Soyinka knows English more than the English’! And who can fault that? Of course the general who was at that time a very good friend of the future Nobel laureate, knew the value of his friend as far as the English language was concerned.

    The reward of idobale

    Another extraordinary encounter may be said to be cultural, ethical. It happened in far-away Warsaw, in communist Poland, in the heydays of Lek Valesa’s trade union, Solidarity.

    Some ten years before Valesa’s political transformation and ascension we were in Warsaw, precisely in 1981, for the world congress of the International Federation of Translators (FIT). Alongside that congress were breakout sessions, including statutory meetings of its 14-member council. I was a member of that council, its first ever and only African member.

    On one of those council meeting days, we were at a luxury restaurant in the heart of Warsaw for lunch. The council, for the records, had membership from every continent on the planet. As we moved from one culinary course to the other, the unusual happened, for that part of the world.

    Dr Lawrence Fabunmi, the then Nigerian Ambassador to Poland, appeared at our restaurant in the company of some people, foreigners and Nigerians. The seasoned diplomat, the very first Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), at the time when that body was situated at Awolowo Road, South-West Ikoyi, in one of those colonial wooden buildings, painted black. His Excellency had been my mentor in the days when as a young man one needed referees and recommendations for one application or the other.

    On sighting my mentor, I sprang up from the table and before you could say Jack Robinson I was fully prostrated, in the well-known idobale posture, an age-worn Yoruba standard practice. Of course the Nigerian Ambassador promptly called me up to my feet, very much impressed, nay elated. As for my FIT council colleagues, they all stood up, out of respect for the Nigerian envoy in his flowing agbada, and in utter disbelief of the spectacle that had just unfolded before their very eyes. Their African colleague, in a navy blue blazer with an Yves Saint-Laurent silk tie, a Pierre Cardin pair of grey trousers and a Dior belt, was proving to be very much from the so-called jungle of Africa after all! But, for the representative of the Nigerian Head of State on European territory, I was in a way only being a veritable cultural ambassador for our country out there, in far-way Eastern Europe. And what was the reward for this cultural coup de matre, master stroke, this instance of cultural dynamism, this unsolicited offer of cultural service to our dear nation? The bill for the whole of the FIT council members’ consumption that afternoon was settled by the Nigerian envoy. We all became the Ambassador’s guests.

    A translator’s clout

    One other encounter occurred during the early days of the Nigerian civil war. I had just graduated from UI and after a very short stint at teaching I was employed as Administrative Officer in the Federal Ministry of Information, with the great statesman Anthony Enahoro as my Minister and the seasoned top civil servant Alhaji Ahmed Joda as my Permanent Secretary.

    From time, to time I would be whisked away to the Ministry of  External Affairs, and from there to Dodan Barracks – the then seat of power, located in Obalende, Ikoyi, Lagos. On a few occasions I was chanced to interpret for the then occupant of the place, the young military Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon. But the most memorable occasion was a day I was taken to that citadel of power and was left almost alone in a room for long hours. Eventually, just before dusk I was called out and found myself in the presence of the high and mighty of those days, the so-called ‘Super Perm. Secs’: Allison Ayida, Phillip Asiodu and of course my own Permanent Secretary Alhaji Ahmed Joda. There was a document to be translated into French. It was urgent. And I was being asked to start translating it there and then. I took a rapid look, it was about six pages, and then told my superiors coldly, matter-of-factly, without hesitation, that I would need to go to my office, at the Ministry of Information to carry my dictionaries, and go and work at home.

    What for me was a matter of course, a routine assignment, was an absolute bombshell! The sense of amazement, apprehension and to some extent irritation was palpable on the faces and in the air that evening. The document in question, and which these men of power had spent hours drafting, finalizing and fine-tuning was no other than the one to be presented by the head of the Nigerian delegation at the peace talks with Ojukwu’s Biafra somewhere not too far  from the shores of Nigeria.

    And here was this budding civil servant, an unknown quantity, barely a few months old in the precincts of power, talking of taking custody of this all-important document, top secret, taking it to his unknown home, all in the name of translation! My principal,  Alhaji Joda, saved the day: ‘I think he is responsible enough’, he opined.  And then the marching orders: ‘My driver will take you to the office, you will carry your dictionaries. He will take you home, and tomorrow, precisely at 12 noon he will come for you and bring you to my house in Ikoyi with the document thoroughly translated’. The next day was a Saturday. I complied. Translators are not traitors, to counter Dante’s assertion.

     

    • Simpson is retired Professor of French and former Commissioner for Education, Lagos State.

  • Don’t spare our leaders, Soyinka tells EFCC

    Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka yesterday urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other anti-corruption agencies not to spare corrupt leaders.

    He said the nation cannot win the war against graft until justice catches up with the corrupt

    Soyinka, who made his views known at the opening ceremony of the eighth Commonwealth Regional Conference for Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Africa, said corrupt leaders should get ready to go down in status when justice catches up with them

    He said: “That we have been bled dry in this nation by corrupt leadership and their agencies is nothing to reiterate. It is a given. And I took the trouble yesterday to visit the headquarters of the EFCC. I wanted to see what would be the mode of hospitality of some of our leaders who will surely, sooner or later, pass through the doors of that beautiful building.

    “I am not a vengeful person but I think until we ensure that some of our leaders pass through those doors, this struggle against corruption in this country will not be won, will not be over.

    “And so, I spoke to Magu and I said I want to see where the presidential wing is. I said as a human rights person, I want to make sure you treat them right when they come here and he said ‘sorry it is an egalitarian institution and I said I would take that message back to them that they should get ready to go down a little bit in status when the time comes and justice catches up with them.”

    The Nobel laureate said for now, the responsibility of anti-corruption agencies should be to recover the rest of Nigeria’s stolen funds which could be used for development.

     

    He added: “For now, your responsibility I believe is to help us recover the rest of the loot which is still flying all over the continent.”

    Soyinka also queried the status of million dollars donated to a neighbouring Head of State by the the late military head of State Gen. Sani Abacha.

    He said for posterity, the cash must be retrieved if it had not been done.

    “Very specific, I said a certain sum of money was taken in a night plane to the head of state of a neighbouring country and if you can just help us recover that sum, it may be 50 per cent, given the resistance, it may be about 25 per cent and that way, it will help us not only to continue the war that existed but establish a principle that corruption is not just in one country. It is a responsibility of a collective group of people to fight it.

    Many, many years later, I was justified because it became an issue in that country. I think you all know the country I am talking about. They raised a panel, explanations had to be given and up till now, I don’t know whether Nigeria has recovered the million dollars that was the figure.

    “But at least, that was an issue of problem of conscience and this is exactly what I hope will emerge from this meeting.

    A former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, recalled the circumstances of his ouster from office in 1975.

    Gowon said leaders who came after him started looting because they did not want to end up like him, who was poorer after leaving office.

    The former military head of state, who ruled from 1966-1975, recalled that he was attending a Continental summit in Ethiopia when he was ousted from power.

    He said it was his aides that contributed money for him to travel to Britain where he went on exile.

    He said: “I can assure you we did not know anything such as corruption. Yes, some of my ministers were accused of corruption but I can assure you that it was something we tried to make sure it didn’t happen especially in our public service.

    “But after I left office, in 1975 and the state in which I left office, I can assure you that apart from my salary, it was those staff that were with me during the OAU meeting that contributed their estacode to ensure that I had something to live on after I had been asked to leave office.

    “That was the only one and then I said I wish I had probably done something, made sure I had provided for the future. I think it was that experience that probably made those who came after us probably to make sure that they provided for the future and therefore, you should not blame them for doing that after the experience that I had.

    “We must really try to make sure that all our leaders elected into office do not touch the nation’s coffers. They should move away from being tempted to touch national wealth.

    “We should come up with solutions on how we can deal with this problem (corruption) and get back all the money stolen from this country for the well-being of this country and not for the good of those in office.”

    Chief Justice of Nigeria Justice Walter Onnoghen, said the summit would enable leaders of anti-corruption agencies to “put heads together in an attempt to better understand the phenomenon of corruption and the canckerworm that has eaten deep into the fabrics of our country.

    “You should share ideas and

  • Do more to end attacks by armed herdsmen, Soyinka tells FG

    Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has called on the Federal Government to do more to end attacks and killings allegedly by criminal herdsmen in parts of the country.

    Soyinka made the call in a statement in Lagos on Sunday.

    He said recurring cases of alleged  criminal herdsmen unleashing terror on communities leaving in their trail tears and blood required lasting interventions.

    Soyinka acknowleged that a few armed herdsmen had been apprehended by security agencies but said that was not enough to put a stop to the mayhem by the criminals.

    He said there were so many of the criminals hiding in the forests which needed to be tracked down by security agencies.

    The Nobel Laureate expressed regrets that some communities had been sacked by the criminals, causing residents to flee.

    He said there was the need to order the invaders out or drive them away and provide security for safe return of residents.

    Soyinka called for justice and restitution for victims of herdsmen attacks, saying that would give them some succour.

    “We must go beyond arresting a token of herdsmen caught with arms as there are still hundreds of them in the forests.

    “It is not enough to back the anti-open grazing law,so late in the day, but we shall leave that for later.

    “Right now, the violated and the dispossessed demand restitution and with no further delay or subterfuge.

    “All available forces should be deployed to right the hideous, unprecedented wrong that has left the nation drowning in blood. We simply cannot continue one day longer to watch this forceful feeding of human blood,” he said.

    He also called on the agencies to track down and identify the sponsors of the criminals in order to curb their activities.

    Soyinka wished “those who laboured for humanity ” a Happy May Day, adding that he was optimistic that the solutions to the security challenge would come in no distant time (NAN)

  • 2019: Obasanjo under fire for anti-Buhari campaign

    Soyinka, Falana attack ex-president at Gani lecture

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo came under fire on Sunday for what was termed his posturing on national issues.

    Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka and activist lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) carpeted him and former military President Gen. Ibrahim Babangida for pretending to be “messiahs”.

    Soyinka, Falana, former Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole, Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, former Kaduna State Governor Balarabe Musa, Senator Shehu Sani, Afenifere chieftain Femi Okurounmu and a presidential aspirant, Omoyele Sowore, among others spoke at the 80th posthumous birthday for Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN).

    The theme of the lecture was “Democracy for the masses through proper and effective governance.”

    Though Soyinka and Falana did not name Obasanjo, it was clear they were referring to him in their speeches.

    Nigeria, according to them, is in danger when politicians like Obasanjo, who “supervised the sacking of democratic governments” in Oyo and Anambra states pretend to be messiahs.

    Under Obasanjo’s presidency, Dr. Chris Ngige was abducted by armed policemen and forced to sign a resignation letter at gunpoint in July 2003.

    In January 2006, his administration influenced Oyo State Governor Rashidi Ladoja’s impeachment by the House of Assembly.

    The Court of Appeal in November 2006 quashed Ladoja’s impeachment.

    In a special statement on January 23, Obasanjo asked President Muhammadu Buhari not to contest the 2019 election as he has “failed.” He promised to lead the battle to prevent Buhari’s return to office with his coalition. He has also been meeting with groups and individuals in his bid to truncate Buhari’s second term bid.

    The President has announced his intention to run again on April 9.

    Soyinka said: “All I want to say in connection with the title of today is just one word: vigilance….There is no question whatsoever that democracy is in danger.

    “And so I find it ironic that those who’ve proved themselves the enemies of democracy who’ve really taken, they’ve really committed acts, not just negligence, but actually inaugurated certain policies which contributed to our being at this point again are once again coming out and positioning themselves as saviours, as messiahs, as the sole possible rescue mission that this nation can even dream of, a nation of nearly 200 million people.

    “I find it very strange, and I find it even stranger because at the beginning of this movement towards ‘rescue mission’, there were one or two organisations that came out under different names and they had people in them whom I considered worth following, worth encouraging, worth encouraging others to study closely and even consider following.

    “The next thing I knew, these movements were being hijacked by the very people who laid the foundation, an ironic word by the way, for the collapse of the democratic edifice.”

    Soyinka said he turned one of the groups down when it approached him.

    He said: “The next thing we know, they are forming coalitions and I was invited by one of the rescue missions to address them and I telephoned them and I asked the question, ‘wait a minute, which one are you? Are you the original people I saw or is there a faction or is there now a fatherly umbrella under which everybody is moving?’

    “And I told them; don’t even come near me, if you’ve signed up on one of those who are the enemies of democracy in this nation.

    “Those who inaugurated so-called constitutional amendment programmes, total charades, to assist them to continue to run, which has been scuttled by the direction known as tenure elongation, third term, etcetera for which the entire national treasury was almost bankrupted.”

    There were claims that Obasanjo attempted to seek a third term following the expiration of his tenure in 2007. The bid hit the rocks when the Ken Nnamani led-Senate threw out the tenure elongation clause during Constitution amendment.

    The Nobel laureate went on: “And suddenly, here they are they are forming coalitions all over the place, once again, confusing people.

    “Who are the genuine leaders, who are those that we can trust?  The answer to that is very simple: look at their track records. That’s all”.

    He advised Nigerians not to allow themselves “to plunge into a zone of amnesia, in which you conveniently forget unpleasant realities.

    “We’ve had presidents in this nation, some of whom inaugurated a never-ending democratic process, which landed us eventually under the most brutal dictators that this nation has ever known.”

    Under Babangida, who was in office between 1985 and 1993, his transition programme was the longest ever in the country’s history. On several occasion, he promised to hand over to a democratically elected government but failed to do so.

    In June 1993, he annulled the presidential election won by the late Bashorun MKO Abiola.

    He was forced to “step aside” in August 1993.

    Babangida handed over to the Ernest Shonekan-led Interim National Government (ING), which was sacked by the late Gen. Sani Abacha, who tried to perpetuate himself in office before his sudden death.

    Soyinka was not done: “We had others also who actually supervised sacking of ‘democratic government’; I’m speaking of Anambra, I’m speaking of Oyo State. A governor was kidnapped under their watch with their complicity; in another instance, thugs actually entered the House of Assembly, sacked the legislators and installed their own candidates; under the same watch.

    “And they call themselves the God-designated watchmen over the fortunes of this nation? And suddenly, here they are and I see Nigerians flocking to them and asking them once again to lead.

    “Mind you, they’ve said very clearly if it becomes a political party count me out o, but paths are already being beaten to their doors, control by subrogation.

    “Even if they do not individually put themselves back in the position of power, they are already smoothening the way for their surrogates, their stooges, so that they can continue to misrule from their cosy farmsteads. So, all I’m urging is: be very vigilant. Just look closely at their records, look at the company they keep.

    He urged the youth to “grow up” and take political power.

    “Why can’t a new generation actually rise, throw us all out of the window and take control of their own lives by themselves? Why do we keep recycling the same jaded traitors, enemies of the people? Why do you need to go for blessing somewhere if you’ve made up your mind that it is time to take control of your own existence?

    ”Once again, I don’t want to be misunderstood, I know what I think about this government when voting time comes, I know exactly where I’m going to cast my vote but I’m not going to allow anybody to hoodwink me and say I will show you the path. No, this will be adding insult to injury.”

    Falana urged the government to confiscate some assets of those people, including a university, “at the right time.” Obasanjo is known to own the Ota-Ogun State based Bells University. He also owns a farm in Ota.

    The activist lawyer said: “Our country is undergoing serious crises of governance but we must be very careful so that we do not allow those who destroyed the country, those who ruined the nation to pose as the saviour of our people.

    “There’s somebody living very close to this place who has been parading himself as the saviour of our people; this guy ruled the country for 11 ½ years cumulatively – 3 ½ years under the military, eight years under a civilian dispensation. And even wanted to do a third term but Nigerians rejected him. Obasanjo was military head of state between February 1976 and October 1, 1979. He was president from 1999 to 2007.

    Falana added: “The guy is going round the country now, claiming to have solutions to our problems; I wish to say here and we are challenging him to name one thing that he did, any problem of the country that he solved.

    “On the contrary, this guy wasted $16billion to generate darkness for the country. This guy formed and took over the resources of the country blindly under what he called blind trust.

    “Nigeria is the only country in the world where a sitting president and a sitting vice-president established private universities when the government refused to fund public universities and other tertiary institutions.

    “Gani went to court to challenge the extortion of state governments and contractors by a man who realised about N7billion to set up a so-called library” Obasanjo has a presidential library in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

    The SAN said: “Under the constitution, any gift received while you are in office, other than customary gifts, is forfeitable to the state; therefore, at the right time, this country, when it is properly organised, will take over all those universities and libraries that were set up with public funds and that may be sooner than you think.”

    Senator Sani (Kaduna Central) said Nigeria was not yet in a true democracy.

    He said: “In fact, our country is sick, the republic is sick; our people are dying, violence, bloodshed, killings, mass murder is becoming the emblem of our democracy today.

    “We are out of PDP misrule but we will be deceiving ourselves to say we are in the Promised Land; we are not in the Promised Land. We must keep vigil,

    “The political ruling elite are not yet prepared to see to a democratic Nigeria. Nigeria’s political reality is about personal interest.

    “Those who destroyed our country in the past are very much present as born-again.”

    He urged Nigerians of integrity to support Buhari because “you can’t build a country because of the integrity of one person. The integrity of one person is not enough to rule and sustain a state. We have a President who is a man of integrity but integrity is not enough for leadership.”

    Oshiomhole, represented by Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Ayuba Wabba said Obasanjo was not worthy to determine Nigerians’ political destiny.

    Oshiomhole said Obasanjo “acted like a civilian dictator” while in power and prevented Nigerians from protesting an unjustified fuel price increase.

    He urged the Federal Government to emulate Lagos State and honour Fawehinmi.

    “Lagos did a good job to build a befitting statue in Fawehinmi’s honour. The Federal Government should do better,” Oshiomhole said.

    Sowore lamented that Nigerians rejected Fawehinmi for Obasanjo in 1999.

    He said: “I want to say very briefly that Nigeria must be regretting that when they had a chance to choose between Chief Gani Fawehinmi and a Barabbas, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, they decided to choose Obasanjo instead of choosing Gani Fawehinmi and that is why we are regretting today.

     

  • Soyinka delivers Elizade varsity lecture

    One hundred and five students of Elizade University, Ilara-mokin in Ondo State will receive their first degrees at the second convocation ceremony of the institution slated for Friday.

    As part of the activities, Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka will on Thursday deliver the convocation lecture titled: “Tending the tree of commencement”.

    Addressing reporters in Ilara-mokin, the Chairman, Ceremonies/Honours Committee, Omololu Adegbenro, said of 105 graduating studnets, 16 are in first class, 50 in second class (upper) and 39 in second class (lower).

    Adegbenro, the registrar,  recalled that the institution, which began operation on January 6, 2013 with 31 students, now has 1,121 students.

    He said the university  started with 12 programmes, but now has 31 programmes spreading across five faculties.

    The registrar said the 25 programmes matured for National University Commission’s (NUC’s) accreditation were given full status.

    He said over N25 billion had been invested in the university by its founder, Chief Michael Ade-Ojo, who, according to him, had contributed over N200 bilion as yearly taxation to the government’s coffers since inception.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Nigeria faces major food crisis over herdsmen attacks — Soyinka

    Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka on Friday expressed grave concern over the continued displacement of the nation’s farming population in various parts of the country by rampaging violent herdsmen.

    Soyinka warned that if nothing was done urgently to stem the tide of killings and sacking of farmers by herdsmen, the dark cloud of violence could plunge the country into a major food crisis.

    The renowned playwright and author of Kongi harvest, who spoke in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, during a conference session on African Drum Festival, said a period like the on – going drum festival, demands a moment of sober reflection on the onslaught by herdsmen against the primary producers of food in the country.

    Soyinka who is the consultant for this year’s African Drum festival,  however, added that the appalling situation should not be allowed to completely dampen the spirit of creativity.

    He called for the immediate restoration of displaced farmers to their traditional base, as a first step towards ensuring that this country is good habitation for people .

    In his address, Governor Ibikunle Amosun observed that the intellectual angle to the festival was an innovation powered by Soyinka thanking him for putting the event together.

  • Poor leadership caused Nigeria’s socio-economic woes – Soyinka

    Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on Thursday blamed leadership failure and poor followership at all levels for Nigeria’s socio-economic problems.

    He stated this while delivering a keynote address at the maiden edition of Ripples Nigeria Dialogue in Lagos.

    The forum, an initiative of the Ripples Centre for Data and Investigative Journalism (RCDIJ) with support from Ripples Nigeria drew participants from the public, organised private sector, academia, media, members of the diplomatic corps and several others.

    Soyinka’s keynote address titled: “From Miyeti to Haiti: Notes from solidarity visit,” dwelt on the overarching theme of the public lecture tagged: “Rebuilding Trust in a Divided Nigeria.”

    He said Nigerians at all levels must be ready to face the truth at all times in the quest to build an egalitarian society.

    “Building trust requires frankness. We’re not talking about leadership alone, we’re talking about followership. I think part of the problem with us in Nigeria is that we don’t look in the mirror. I talked about looking in the mirror both individually and collectively,” he stated.

    Speaking on the title of his address, the Nobel laureate said the title was a recollection of his recent visit to Haiti.

    Haiti and Nigeria, he maintained, share several similarities in terms of multi-ethnic culture, history and experience.

    Soyinka said it was disheartening to note that Nigeria is a country of slaves where the citizens have remained in servitude.

     

     

  • Govt allowed killings by herdsmen to fester, says Soyinka

    Govt allowed killings by herdsmen to fester, says Soyinka

    President Muhammadu Buhari is operating under a trance, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka said yesterday.

    The sooner he gets out of that trance, Soyinka said, the better for the country.

    Prof. Soyinka, who spoke at a press conference on the damaging consequences of marauding herdsmen on the nation, noted the unforced errors going on in the nation.

    With the theme:  “Herdsmen and Nation:  Valentine Card or Valedictory Rites?” the dramatist gave an analogical tale of a state whose master’s insensitivity allows for the overbearing actions of his subjects.

    He lamented that mass destruction of farmlands in the most horrifying manner had become a norm, festering with the encouragement of the government’s body language.

    Soyinka described as appalling the position of the Inspector General of Police that the loss of lives in Benue State, and consequent increase in the number of internal refugees, was simply a communual clash.

    In his view, little will be achieved in security without  state police.

    “If the IG can sit in Abuja and say of an event that is happening under the jurisdiction of a governor in another state is just a communal clash when people are being slaughtered and their villages are being occupied, it shows complete alienation. Then there is  the authority of Governors who have the ultimate authority for security. It is the governor who is supposed to be the chief security officer. We are now back to authoritative voices saying indeed, state police need to be decentralised. We have been saying it and others  have been saying for a long time. We are now getting back to the commonsensical issue that the nation cannot function under a single police command,” he said.

    Acknowledging, however, that the Nigerian Army has done marvelously in degrading the capacity of the Boko-Haram insurgents, the poet-activist said “it must now turn around to face another phenomenon which is considered in some international circles deadlier than the Boko-Haram”.

    According to him, the containing efforts happening now should have begun six months as he expected the force to have immediately transferred its concentration from operations, such as Python Dance and Crocodile Smile to where the heat was.

    He said the security agencies have the responsibility to look at highly-placed people in whose interest anarchy can be fostered.

    Soyinka added: “Why colonies were brought in to complicate things, I do not know. Ranches; that’s the word used everywhere. There is no organized illegal force that does not sooner or later spin up. Are these internally generated or are they being launhed by individuals who in their interest the nation must be in a state of anarchy? We sometimes talk about corruption but we don’t understand how far corruption goes. When you think of the amount being stolen in this country, enough funds illegal fund to destabilise the country. We might end up discovering that some of these people profit from ensuring there is chaos from Maiduguri to Lagos.”

    Speaking on restructuring, Soyinka said: “Sooner or later, people will recognise the fact it’s not broken record they are listening to, it’s their hearing that is impaired. In other words, we have been shouting restructuring, now its inevitability has always been stressed. The internal relationship of the units of this country be decentralised. And anytime you talk about restructuring, you hear this gibberish that the sovereignty of this country will not be compromised. Who is talking about sovereignty? We are saying the internal components of the country needed to be addressed … We must decentralise governance.”

    Asked what he would tell President Buhari if he met him, the Nobel laureate said: “I would say: Mr President, I think you are under a trance. “The sooner he gets out of it the better. So many unforced errors are going on,” he added.

    Prof. Soyinka cited Buhari’s recall of the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Usman Yusuf, after he was suspended for alleged graft by Minister of Health Isaac Adewole, as a recent example of the unforced errors that have characterised the administration.