Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, has said the President,
Muhammadu Buhari , squashed a putrid egg against Nigerians’ faces with the
pardon granted ex-governors of Plateau State, Senator Joshua Dariye; and Taraba
State, Rev. Jolly Nyame.
He noted that it was an action that the people shall not
forget – or wipe off – in a hurry.
Soyinka spoke in a statement on Tuesday titled, “A putrid
presidential Easter egg.’’
The playwright in the statement which he also addressed to
the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, noted that he was
impelled not to miss an opportunity to add his own Easter drop to the
overflowing vessel of pietistic sentiments if only to reassure Christians – and
also Muslims in turn – that even they, non-believers, do partake of the same
ethical communion to which most humanity aspire.
Kukah had come under attack from the Presidency over his
Easter sermon on Sunday via which he knocked Buhari’s regime over the country’s
festering security challenges, corruption and disunity.
The National Council of State last week endorsed the pardon
of Dariye, Nyame and 157 other convicts after the recommendation of the
Presidential Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy.
The essayist said, “Easter Greetings to you, Rev Mathew
Kukah and to all your followers. All has been said, I think. I am impelled
however not to miss an opportunity to add my own Easter drop to the overflowing
vessel of pietistic sentiments if only to reassure Christians – and also
Muslims in turn — that even we, non-believers, do partake of that same ethical
communion to which most humanity aspire. Also, your Easter sermon opens up yet
again those sluices of juridical hypocrisy to which we dare not cease to draw
attention.
“Such, in the immediate, remains the plight of two young men
– Mubarak Bala and the musician Yahaya Sharif – one serving a sentence of 25
years, the other actually sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy. That word
“blasphemy” comes into its authentic mode, in my view, whenever anyone violates
a solemn oath of office. Its penitentiality becomes even redoubled when such
violators are pampered with the prerogative of mercy.
“Permit me to call special attention to the following from
your sermon: “Religious leaders…. must face the reality that here in Nigeria
and elsewhere around the world, millions of people are leaving Christianity and
Islam. While we are busy building walls of division with the blocks of
prejudice, our members are becoming atheists, but we prefer to pretend that we
do not see this. We cannot pretend not to hear the footsteps of our faithful
marching away into atheism and secularism. No threats can stop this, but
dialogue can open our hearts.”
Soyinka noted that he was persuaded that the recent largesse
from the country’s President had already won a few hearts and minds to the
ranks, if not of outright atheism, then at least to a healthy sceptical regard
of piety spouting leadership that saw nothing wrong in attempts to extinguish
the life of a young man for an honest declaration of conviction.
He added that conversely veterans of broken pledges were let
loose to further infect a world they had betrayed.
The Nobel laureate stated, “No pardon has been extended in
the direction of endangered, youthful integrity. Of course, it is easy to track
the trajectory of events. Nettled by increasingly scabrous comments, such as
those of his predecessor in office, Olusegun Obasanjo, who declared that this
incumbent has run out of ideas, that he has nothing left to offer the nation,
Muhammadu Buhari decided to embark on the Easter train and donate an Easter egg
of truly presidential proportions to his subjects.
“Coming from a leader who had placed all his eggs in one basket,
labelled Anti-Corruption, this is one egg squashed against Nigerian faces that
they shall not forget – or wipe off – in a hurry. It evokes the legend of
Pandora’s box whose contents are alleged to constitute all the ills that plague
the world. Putrid to the core, allied to power provocations in numerous
variations, such as catapulting a notorious player in the martyrdom of a
serving Minister of Justice to the hub of governance wheel, these define the
nature of bequests that have brought the nation to this moment of near
dissolution.
“Precedents are no consolation, no excuses. One states the
obvious in remarking that precedents either undermine or reinforce principles,
and aspiring offenders, especially in the political domain, are encouraged or
inhibited by the ease or difficulty of access to the fount of mercy.
Officeholders, we presume, are constrained by the existence of that dangling
Sword of Damocles – simply knowing that one day, the cloak of immunity will
turn threadbare, and the awaited day of reckoning finds them answerable.
Clearly, not any longer.’’
He further said, “You will forgive, though disagree with me, I know, for clambering onto the Easter wagon myself, to echo the words of the One whose passage through the world the Easter season commemorates: “It is finished!”
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