Wole Soyinka, a professor and Nobel
Laureate, has described Muhammadu
Buhari, presidential candidate of the
All Progressives Congress (APC), as
the most brutal face of military
dictatorship after Sani Abacha.
The revered professor, who spoke to
the BBC, suggested that Nigerians are
in a serious dilemma with lack of
alternative.
When asked about his comments
about the general as a brutal devil,
Soyinka said he did not exactly call
him the devil, but a brutal dictator.
“I didn’t exactly call him a devil, but
of course I talked about dinning with
the devil with a very long spoon, but
he (Buhari), I didn’t even want to dine
with him at all,” he said.
“After Abacha, he represented the
most brutal face of military
dictatorship, there’s no question at all
about that.
“I’ve got to the point whereby I look
at the possibility of a genuine internal
transformation with some individuals.
I have been disappointed before, and
we must always be ready to be
disappointed again.”
Speaking about deepening democracy
in Nigeria, the 80-year-old said:
“There are many, many actions,
especially by the government in power
which I won’t say are exactly
democratic. Let’s have a fair war, it’s
not yet deep enough.”
He went on to speak about the
abducted Chibok girls, branding
insurgency in the north-east a failure
of leadership by Jonathan and his
predecessors.
“What happened was a clear failure in
leadership. One cannot hold the
government solely; the responsibility
spreads, because the Boko Haram
thing began in various ways a long
time ago.
“There was a time when they
announced the Islamisation of Nigeria;
they should have been stamped upon
by the constitution, using the
constitution as a weapon.
“While definitely, the responsibility of
what is going on rests with Jonathan,
the bigger problem began with
previous governments.”
On the options before Nigeria in the
coming presidential elections, the
erudite scholar urged Nigerians to be
prepared to go back to the trenches if
the wrong choice is made.
“Basically, for me, anything which so
smells of soliciting permanent
incumbency or littling the options is
not palatable. But you know, the
environment changes, the
circumstances change and then even
the worst military can become
demobilised, self-internally
demobilised if you like.
“All I know is that if a wrong choice is
made, we must all be prepared, we
should start preparing to go back to
the trenches, whatever it takes.
“Let’s put it this way: the way you
fight a civilian misrule is different from
the way you deal with people like
Sanni Abacha.
“So I’m saying Nigerians should be
prepared to deal with any new
betrayals by any ruler with the same
kind of passion, commitment and
understanding of a lack of alternative
as they did with Sani Abacha, because
we cannot continue this cycle of
repetitious evil and irresponsibility.”