Soyinka and Buhari
Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has called on 74-year-old Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, to reveal the condition of his health as he owes it to the nation.While speaking in an exclusive interview with AFP at Paris Book Fair weekend, Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, called on Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, to reveal the condition of his
health after spending nearly two months in Britain on medical leave.
health after spending nearly two months in Britain on medical leave.
“He’s ill, there’s no question, and I wish for heaven’s sake that people in public positions would just be honest.
“Illness is part of our existence. Buhari owes it to the nation and I don’t know why he and his advisors are being so coy about it,” Soyinka said.
The legendary playwright who also said that US President, Donald Trump, exploited “latent xenophobia” to reach the White House, added that the people had a right to agitate for self-autonomy within a geographical expression.
Prof. Soyinka was obviously reacting to the agitation for declaration of independent state of Biafra in the South East of Nigeria. “It’s not the real estate for me that defines a nation or a people, no, it’s a history, a culture," he said.
"What is a crime within an artificial entity like Nigeria? You have states being created which are not viable," he added.
Biafra unsuccessfully fought for independence in a brutal three-year civil war during which Soyinka was imprisoned for nearly two years over allegations of espionage.
Separatist sentiment has grown since the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, was arrested in October 2015, sparking bloody clashes with security forces.
The military denied an allegation by Amnesty International in November that security agents killed some 150 Biafra protesters in the past year.
Soyinka said: “I cannot accept the notion that people have a right to kill other people because they want to assert their identity… It it doesn’t cost anything to recognise it.”
He said President Donald Trump, exploited “latent xenophobia” to reach the White House, decrying the erection of walls, especially in people’s minds, anywhere in the world. “He played to a latent xenophobic streak which exists in all societies including mine,” said Soyinka.
Soyinka, who was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1986, said further: “To me a horrible moment was to watch hundreds of thousands of people actually applauding when (Trump) uttered these sentiments” during the election campaign.
“I’m against the erection of walls, especially in people’s minds,” the white-haired professor added. "I’ve never made any bones about it, whether it’s happening in Nigeria” or elsewhere.”
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