Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, says he believes that the
President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, cannot be worse than past
presidents because he will be guided by a sense of history.
He, however, said that he “is cautiously optimistic” about Buhari’s
performance.
Soyinka said this while delivering a lecture titled, ‘Predicting
Nigeria, Electoral Ironies’ at the Harvard University Hutchins
Centre for African and African American Research in the United
States, according to a gazette by the institution.
A former US Ambassador to Nigeria, Walter Carrington, had asked
Soyinka if Buhari could reform Nigeria like the late Singaporean
leader, Lee Kuan Yew.
In his response, Soyinka said he was optimistic. He added that
Buhari might deal ruthlessly with corrupt politicians.
Soyinka said, “I am very, very cautiously optimistic.”
He predicted that Buhari would be influenced by those around him
to “keep his nose to the letter of the law. In his zeal to absolutely
eradicate corruption, he might take advantage of ambiguous areas
in the law and the constitution to empower himself to deal very
ruthlessly and quickly with those who have robbed the nation
blind.”
Soyinka reasoned that Buhari was unlikely to do worse than his
predecessors.
He, however, said it would be naive for Nigerians to think that
Buhari is the messiah.
He said, “I think that Buhari has a sense of history. He knows that
he must make a mark, a very positive mark, on Nigeria to be able
to live with himself, or die with a clean conscience. We must make
sure that Nigerians are not allowed to forget his past. They should
not think that the messiah has finally arrived.
“I think we stay on guard and continue to do what has needed to
be done for the past 20 years or so.”
Soyinka said he believed that terrorism would continue for a long
time because those perpetrating the act were of the belief that they
were doing God’s work.
He said, “We will never get rid of Boko Haram. They are jihadists
who wish to impose Sharia law and ban Western learning across
Nigeria as indoctrinated. They are fanatics who believe that if they
die in the cause, they will go straight to heaven where they believe
literally in the 77 virgins awaiting their arrival.”