Not for Wole Soyinka , Nigeria’s
foremost man of letters, a gentle
retirement or attempt to separate
art from politics. The 80-year-old spent
election day in Africa’s biggest
democracy working the phones late into
the night, gathering reports of technical
glitches, irregularities and violence.
There was plenty to keep him awake.
“We’re talking about a very positive
response by the public in terms of
determination to register and vote but,
you know, this has been one of the most
vicious, unprincipled, vulgar and
violent election exercises I have ever
witnessed,” Soyinka reflected sadly. “I
just hope we won’t go down as being
the incorrigible giant of Africa .”
A Nobel laureate and former political
prisoner, Soyinka could be described as
the conscience of the nation. In an
interview with the Guardian in the
commercial capital, Lagos, on Sunday he
railed against what is thought to have
been the most expensive election in
African history, revealed intriguing
details of a recent meeting with
president Goodluck Jonathan (“He
jumped up as if his seat was on fire”)
and warned a “very sinister force”
could exploit disputed results to mount
something approaching a coup.
Jonathan is fighting for his political life
against opposition candidate
Muhammadu Buhari in the most hotly
contested poll in Nigerian history.
Voting spilled over into a second day
after widespread technical hitches on
Saturday that saw Jonathan himself
initially denied registration.
Tall and thin with a shock of white hair
and Socratic beard, Soyinka said: “The
stakes appear to be so high that all
scruples have been set aside and it’s
very distressing to compare this election
with the election of 1993, which was one
of the most orderly, civilised and
resolute elections we ever had. This one
was like a no-holds-barred kind of
election, especially, frankly, from the
incumbency side. One shouldn’t be too
surprised anyway given the kind of
people who are manning the barricades
for the incumbent candidate.”
Countless millions of dollars have been
lavished on the election campaigns, with
commercials dominating television and
newspapers for the three months.
Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) produced a so-called documentary
savaging Buhari’s character and last
week paid for a 36-page advertising
supplement in leading newspapers.
Cities have been coated in placards and
posters on a breathtaking scale.
“Most expensive, most prodigal,
wasteful, senseless, I mean really
insensitive in terms of what people live
on in this country ,” Soyinka continued.
“This was the real naira-dollar
extravaganza, spent on just subverting,
shall we say, the natural choices of
people. Just money instead of argument,
instead of position statements.
“And of course the sponsoring of
violence in various places, in addition
to this festive atmosphere in which
every corner, every pillar, every electric
pole is adorned with one candidate or
the other, many of them in poses which
remind one of Nollywood.
When you are informed that
200 children are missing, you
don’t go to dinner until you
have got to the bottom of it
Wole Soyinka
“I get a feeling sometimes that some of
these candidates were just locked in
their wardrobes and they were told:
‘Just take selfies in there and don’t come
out until you’ve finished the entire
wardrobe.’ All kinds of postures. Just
ridiculous. It has been an embarrassing
exercise in terms of electioneering.”
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The writer fears that Nigeria’s multi-
millionaire tycoons will continue to call
the tune. Nigeria is ranked 136th out of
174 countries on Transparency
International’s corruption perception
index.
“Obviously this money didn’t come from
personal pockets only, there’s no
question. It’s been bankrolled by lots of
businesspeople – many of them I’m sure
have been taxed indirectly – and they’ll
be expecting some returns for this
outlay, and so how are we actually
going to get rid of this thing called
corruption, if the electoral process itself
has been so corrupted? It’s a money
election. How on earth is that bugbear
going to be lifted from the neck of
society? I just don’t know.”
Soyinka was imprisoned for almost two
years during one of Nigeria’s spells
under military rule in 1967. He became
the first African to win the Nobel prize
for literature in 1986. He remains
politically active and a constant thorn
in the side of authority, although he
insists that he lacks the temperament to
ever run for office himself. He told how
he was recently invited by Jonathan,
who has a “boyish charm”, to discuss
various issues.
“We even discussed life after power,
whenever that takes place,” he recalled.
“It was difficult for me to decide from
his side how readily he might accept
defeat. He absolutely swore that if he
lost he was going back to [his home]
Otuoke village. If I take him literally, I
think he will accept the result, but I’ve
learned never to trust any politician
from here to there, even if they’re just
coming out of communion. So I really
don’t know.”
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He added: “I think Nigerians have had a
very rough time over the last few years
with [the Islamist militant group] Boko
Haram and all kinds of insecurity,
failure of governance and so on. I think
we deserve to have this period as a
period of comparative tranquillity and
peace of mind to reconstruct and
address some really fundamental issues
of society. So I really hope the result,
however gracelessly or grudgingly, will
be accepted by the loser.”
If it is not, however, chaos could ensure.
Although both leaders have sworn a
peace pledge, it is unclear whether they
can control their supporters, some of
whom have threatened a violent
backlash. Soyinka fears that political
instability could be used as an excuse by
figures in the state security apparatus to
seize power. “Even before elections
there had been discussions and
preparation for ‘interim government’,”
he alleged. “Why on earth such a card
should be on the table at all beats me. I
asked President Jonathan, ‘What is this
business of interim government?’
This for me is the most
dangerous situation that any
nation can be in
“What he said was, ‘I could never be
part of it. I would consider it a
downfall, a demotion. Here I am
president of the nation, I was voted in
by the whole nation, why should I then
accept an arraignment, which is by a
few people? I would consider it
degrading to what I have attained in
life.’ That was his expression. But
President Jonathan is in a cage. He
didn’t strike me as being aware of the
forces which surround him.”
The author cited an incident earlier this
month when Morocco recalled its
ambassador to Nigeria in a diplomatic
spat over whether Jonathan was trying
to use the king of Morocco to win over
Muslim voters. The Moroccan royal
palace said the king had declined a
request for a phone conversation, while
Nigeria insisted that the two leaders had
spoken at length. Nigeria later backed
down and admitted the conversation
did not happen.
“Here is a situation where a president
did not even know that a foreign
country, a friendly country, had
withdrawn its ambassador from
Nigeria. I was the one who told him. He
jumped up as if his seat was on fire. I
couldn’t believe it … He was not aware
that for about five days the media had
been absolutely hysterical with this
embarrassing situation between the
two. It was that very night that he made
a public statement about it for the first
time.
“So when I say that there is a force
around, I know what I’m talking about.
There is a very sinister force in control
and it is that sinister cabal which is
responsible for caging him in and
showing him what they think he should
know about and keeping away from him
things which are not in their interest,
and this for me is the most dangerous
situation that any nation can be in.”
Soyinka is scathing about Jonathan’s
record as president, notably his
mishandling of last year’s incident
when 276 schoolgirls in Chibok were
kidnapped by Boko Haram, prompting a
worldwide outcry and social media
campaign. “I think he is remorseful
now, but at the beginning he took it
very lightly. He himself has admitted as
much in public. When you are informed
that 200 children are missing, you don’t
go to dinner until you have got to the
bottom of it.
“But it took him I don’t know how many
days to believe, but it certainly took him
about 10 days to react. Now, for a
leader of a people that is just totally
unacceptable. Two hundred people. And
then his wife was telling the police to go
and arrest people who were protesting.
The whole of that episode, I told him,
whether you win the election or not,
you’ve got to do something to assuage
the feelings of people over that
particular lapse. That was one
horrendous lapse of which no head of
state should ever be guilty. You send
children to school to go and take an
exam, and then you’re told they’re
missing. For me, the entire nation
should not sleep until an answer to that
assault is provided.”
But while Jonathan is too weak, critics
say, his opponent, Buhari, may be too
strong. He ruled Nigeria as a military
dictator for 20 months in the mid-1980s,
cracking down on the media among
others, but claims to be a “born again”
democrat who has contested three
previous elections, losing every time.
Soyinka admitted: “My memory of
General Buhari has become rather
mixed up. Four years ago I certainly
wasn’t even prepared to consider the
possibility of a genuine ‘born-again’.
But at the risk of being proved wrong, I
think we have a case here of a genuine
‘born-again’ phenomenon.”
The poet and playwright declined to say
explicitly how he voted, but dropped a
big hint by saying: “Maybe we should
all try to be a little bit of Mandela. If
Mandela could actually make a leap of
faith towards the Boers after the
atrocities committed against the black
people [in South Africa], when the
moment comes and the system under
which we operate has thrown up just
two candidates really … I think I asked
myself: ‘Who would Nelson Mandela
have voted for?’ and that’s the person I
voted for. That’s all I’m going to tell
you.”


Cc. Ishilove Lalasticlala