Wole Soyinka, foremost
playwright, says he will not participate in this year’s June 12 celebrations.
In honour of MKO Abiola, the
presumed winner of the 1993 presidential election, President Muhammadu Buhari
had signed into law, a bill to make June 12 replace May 29 as Democracy Day.
In an essay made available on Tuesday, Soyinka condemned the conduct of the 2019 elections.
“This year’s recall of an
uplifting day in the year 1993 comes up against a background of its most
shameful disavowal: the 2019 elections – still under judicial contestation – an
event that would be more accurately described as an exercise in body count
rather than ballot count,” he said.
“The elections however merely
reflected a pattern of savagery and abandonment of human sensibilities that
have eaten away the sheerest sense of community in the nation. I have already
described it as the final descent into the abyss of human degradation. The
recent call – no matter how suspect the motivation –for what amounts to a
national discourse on future directions was nothing new.
“A day dedicated to democracy –
as a compelling morality of social existence – is merely frivolous unless
directed at the recognition of the telling, prevailing features of the last
exercise, which throw in question the free, hopefully educated exertion of
human choice.”
The Nobel laureate also made it
known that his non participation in this year’s Democracy Day was by choice.
“I shall not participate in this
year’s June 12 celebrations – from choice. It is part of my training exercises
for withdrawing from public space, a resolution that I first half seriously
injected into encounters over five years ago. That absence applies, not to the
official celebration alone – of which I have never been a part anyway – but to
the annual ritual by civic groups, a ritual of both tribute and defiance that
has been unflaggingly observed till now,” he said.
Soyinka said Democracy Day
deserves truthful confrontation with the socio-political conditions and it
should not be celebrated with groundless recriminations.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com