Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has called for a
national mobilisation to combat the menace of insecurity bedeviling the
country.
He also said Nigeria’s sovereignty had been taken away by
Boko Haram terrorists, bandits and other criminal elements.
In a direct reference to the President, Major General
Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), the Nobel laureate said the President could not end
the insecurity challenge in the country, sitting down in Aso Rock.
Soyinka stated this on Saturday while featuring on an Arise TV programme
According to him, Nigeria has reached the “stage of
desperation” and the government should be willing to “pay people to come and
help us” in defence against Boko Haram insurgents, bandits, and other criminal
elements.
Soyinka said, “There are those on whose shoulders must be
placed the primary responsibility and that include some former Heads of State
who refused to see the inevitability of what we are going through right now.
“I am very glad that the northern elite are now speaking up,
boldly and practically, (and are also) now taking measures which they should
have taken years ago. They’ve moved beyond the unbelievable policies of
actually paying killers to stop killing. I don’t want to mention names but some
of them admitted that they were paying protection money to killers instead of
dealing with that cancer in the only way which they should which, is excision,
to take out killers instead of giving them money.
“You don’t appease evil and we are dealing with evil; there
is no other word, we are dealing with the proliferation, the enthronement of
evil in the society. And unfortunately, we have encouraged its manifestation,
its proliferation, its entrenchment.
“So, let them get away with the issue of sovereignty. If
they have to pay people to come and help us, then call them whatever you want.
Please go ahead because we’ve reached that stage of desperation.
“But I will prefer a general mobilisation in which people
are trained, farmers especially are trained to work with the hoe in one hand
and the gun in the other hand, ready to protect their lives, their harvests and
the rest of us.
“We are not unique, history is full of those situations. I
will like to see a national mobilisation. Let’s be practical.”
At least 43 rice farmers
were beheaded by Boko Haram terrorists in Borno State last November.
Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, had consequently urged
the Federal Government to engage mercenaries and the militaries of neighbouring
countries, like Chad and Cameroon, to crush the over decade old Boko Haram
insurgency.
Soyinka added, “From a self-protective point of view, it is
a common problem; it is a national, collective issue. Don’t just sit there and
think that you can solve it from Aso Rock,; no. This now concerns even the
lowest common citizens in this nation because that lowest, that most impotent
individual has become a prime target. So, it’s a collective issue. I’m not
surprised some governors now say let us reach outside help; it’s something I
have said also. I don’t say mercenaries necessarily, but this has gone beyond a
Nigerian problem.
“Instead of that, what do I hear? Somebody gets on the
podium and say, ‘The sovereignty of this nation cannot be challenged. Please,
don’t let us hear any more of that rubbish. The sovereignty of this nation is
in the hands of the murdering herdsmen. The sovereignty of this nation has
already been taken over by Boko Haram, it’s been taken over by ISWAP, it’s been
taken over by those with absolutely no respect for what is called national
integrity.”
Soyinka also said Buhari’s nepotistic tendencies were outrageous,
adding that the President appointed wrong people into the wrong places.
Soyinka’s statement comes two weeks after the Bishop of
Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Mathew Kukah, also accused the President of nepotism.
‘Amotekun must not become another SARS’
Meanwhile, Soyinka also warned that the Western Nigeria Security Network, otherwise known as Amotekun, must not transform into another form of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
The writer said Amotekun operatives must be trained in
ethics so they would not end on the wrong side of history.
Soyinka said, “Community policing, like Amotekun, is a
recognition of the fact that the civic part of the entire national polity has
got to wake up in not just its own defence but also survival.
“I have told them that anytime they want us to come and
assist; we will come even if it is just on the ethical session so that as you
are training them to defend us, we are also training their minds so that
Amotekun does not become another SARS –
very important. We must do everything together.
“It is about time the public examined itself; what are we
made up of? Are there those among us who, if they got into power, will behave
exactly as those kinds of agencies which we are repudiating and against which
we are protesting? There is absolutely no excuse for the brutality that
occurred in the wake of the noise, rumour or reality of people being shot at
the Lekki tollgate.”
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