Hehe this man is back again...Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has
raised the alarm that “illegal, sinister and power-grabbers” are bent on
scuttling the country’s current democratic process.
The power-grabbers, according to him, are the ones pushing for the imposition of interim government on the country.
He said during an interview with SaharaTV,
a United States-based online broadcast station operated by
SaharaReporters, that what he was sure of, was that President Goodluck
Jonathan knew such people.
The 80-year-old playwright, who on Wednesday told a German radio station, Deutsche Welle,
that he feared there were “clear indications of a military
intervention,” said with the current political situation and the
insurgency in the North-East, Nigeria was facing its most dangerous
period.
He said in spite of the challenges, what
bothered him most, was the plot by some people to take over the rein of
the country illegally.
Soyinka said, “This is what bothers me
deeply: There are people who see this as an opportunity for their own
political and sinister activities in the country.
Therefore, we are not even united against the dangerous enemy of the
country. The elections themselves are being used as an opportunity of
sowing bitter seed of discord and for power-grabbing.
“It is now an established fact that there
had been moves towards scuttling the democratic process by instituting a
so-called interim government. But the proof is there of some
participants in meetings for the formation of an interim government. Why
form an interim government when there is an electoral process?
The Nobel laureate stated that he spoke
personally with the President to ascertain his involvement in the plot
to foist an interim government on Nigerians.
“I went to President Jonathan and I asked
him, and he was to all appearances outraged by the very suggestion. I
remember he used an expression, ‘If such a thing is going on it is
outside my wish or my will. After I have been elected by the entire
nation, isn’t being the head of an interim government a demotion and an
undignifying position?’” Soyinka said.
“Maybe there are forces in operation in
this nation during this very critical period about which he knows of
that is the answer which I could make and it is up to him to sort
himself out in contending with these illegal forces,” the literary icon
said.
Soyinka therefore called on Nigerians not to be complacent about the current political situation in the country.
He said, “I believe that these elections,
going by his (Jonathan) body language… it is very difficult to
penetrate truthfully and deeply into the minds of politicians… going by
his body language, I think Jonathan has no intention of scuttling the
elections.
“In other words, the elections would take
place but what kind of elections would we have? And what might be the
aftermath of the elections? He has repeatedly said, ‘I’m going back to
Otuoke if I lose the election.’ I just hope we don’t wake up one day
with our complacent attitude and find out that we, as a people, have
been overthrown by very sinister, illegal and useless forces.”
He had told Deutsche Welle on
Wednesday that “ex-military officers and security officers were
trying to push aside the political contestants and use the unrest (in
the North-East) as an excuse to establish an interim government.
Soyinka explained that “the nature of the interim government wants to pretend it’s not really a military intervention.”
He added that “a few political
leaders, well-known civilians, want to give the veneer of civilian
structure, but basically it’s a kind of political intervention.”
The Nobel laureate, who stated that
Nigeria “is aspiring very hard to become a failed state,” also lamented
the increasingly aggressive direction the election campaign in Nigeria
was taking.
Soyinka told DW that while he
doesn’t support the opposition’s move to file criminal charges against
Mrs. Patience Jonathan at the International Criminal Court, her comments
should be checked
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