Literary icon, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on Monday, explained why he may no longer wants to comment on President Muhammadu Buhari‘s administration.
He told an on-line TV in a chat that went viral yesterday that “for the sake of sanity, one must imagine that the regime of the President Muhammadu Buhari does not exist.”
The Nobel laureate, who was seen being interviewed onboard a train, described the new Lagos-Abeokuta-Ibadan standard gauge train, as marvellous and long overdue.
He told the Kaftan TV reporter that he would not like to talk about the Buhari administration because he imagined that it does not exist.
When asked whether the new train was a plus to Buhari’s regime, he said:
I don’t want to talk about Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. I think it is best for my sanity just to avoid that overall question. I can take bits and pieces of Nigeria’s present predicament but I think for one’s sense of balance, one must forget the existence of the Buhari administration.
Soyinka had in September last year supported Buhari’s critics, saying that Nigerians no longer have hope in his government as one that is genuinely committed to the survival of the nation as one.
"One should just forget the Buhari's administration, for the sake of one's sanity" – Wole Soyinka
This is actually my stance.pic.twitter.com/CU4TeK8KCX
— Tosin Olugbenga (@TosinOlugbenga) January 4, 2021
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He was quoted to have said:
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 brutalized citizenry, should learn to bow under the yoke and negotiate, since “only the living” can enjoy the dividends of legal rights?
