Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has demanded audience with the ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua as a worshipper of Orisa, following recent visits to the presidency by leaders from the nation’s two main religions - Islam and Christianity.

Orisa is a generic name for traditional Yoruba religion.

Mr. Soyinka made this demand yesterday at the Civic Centre, where he delivered a lecture titled ‘Leadership and Followership as shared responsibility’ at an event organised by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG).

Proper examination

Reacting to the reported visit of religious leaders to Mr. Yar’Adua over the weekend, Mr. Soyinka said “the clerics that have visited him have been very modest in their report. One said he couldn’t speak while another said he heard him grumble, but both agreed he could not use his hand. It is time a committee of Nigerian doctors actually see Yar’Adua and examine that his hand was truly raised and as well examine if the hand can be used properly.”

Mr. Soyinka said there should be no limit to the group of people allowed to see the ailing president.

“There is a kind of insolence going on around the precincts of Aso Rock and, as privileged groups are now allowed to see him, I am going to send an application as a follower of Orisa demanding that Sango worshippers also want to see him now,” he said.

He then alleged that the president is a victim of spousal abuse and referred to him as President “Yar I do or die”.

Leadership with a sign

In his lecture, Mr. Soyinka, defined the leadership in Nigeria in two ways: governmental leadership and civil leadership and he decried both level of leaderships in Nigeria, saying “government leadership in Nigeria is generally with a sigh.”

He also criticised the previously active civil society in the country. He said that, due to lack of leadership, “civil society became unbelievably comatose, and it took a lot too much of slapping just because each of them was looking for leadership.”

He therefore said Nigerians need to boost civil leadership so as to balance the zones of leadership; stating that “it is the civil leadership that has authority, what government leadership has is just power, and only the civil society can hold the government accountable. We need to make that power ludicrous.”

He commended renewed effort, as seen with the campaigns of the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) and Enough is Enough coalitions.

“The SNG is an ecumenical, non-partisan and very-very focused group, which is why I joined them,” he said. “This momentum must not be lost or else we return back to the treachery. People must develop the spirit of inconvenience and boycotting. NEPA would not have reached this deplorable state if the civil society was active. This kind of situation is intolerable. Nigerians are amazing people to have taken this much.”

He urged Nigerians to rally around the new movements, which seem to have found the required leadership. Using a Yoruba adage that says “debating if it is the man or woman that killed the snake is irrelevant, what wants matters is that the snake must be killed,” Mr. Soyinka said “that snake of corrupt or manipulative leadership must be killed.”

Iwu must go

The literary icon again reiterated his call for the removal of the chairperson of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Maurice Iwu, calling the INEC boss “a human obstacle to reforming the system.”

Then, reacting to a member of the audience who wondered about the point of voting if one knows that “in an election, my vote will not count”, Mr. Soyinka condemned the level of indolence of the Nigerian citizen, whom he described as “people always blaming the system.”

He called on Nigerians to come out of their shells and fight for the redemption of the country.

“Even when you know that your vote will not count, protecting that vote is part of the shared responsibility otherwise we get into the negative cycle where the other half makes sure you won’t have what you ever want,” he said. “If you rob me, I think it is my responsibility to go after you. It is a simple logical attitude.”

Sam Ohuabunwa, the NESG’s chairperson, affirmed that, with the small population of corrupt leaders, “the massive size of the civil society will swamp the government.”

He identified the problem of civil society as a lack of civil leadership. According to Mr. Ohabunwa, “the challenge today is that the civil society needs to improve their leadership because the more vibrant the civil society, the more accountable the governmental leadership.”


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