Soyinka opens up on Biafra, Buhari

By Doris Obinna. The SUN.

Agitation in South-East not surprising

Prof Wole Soyinka

Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, yesterday spoke frankly on the agitation in the South East and declared that Biafra cannot be defeated.

Soyinka added that the agitation did not come to him as a surprise.

He also defended his choice of President Muhammadu Buhari as a better candidate, in the last presidential contest between him and former president Goodluck Jonathan.

Speaking on Channels Television last night, Soyinka said agitation for Biafra will never go away as Biafra is an idea.

He said: "I remember I wrote an article during the war and I said at that time that Biafra cannot be defeated. People misunderstood what I was saying. I said once an idea has taken hold, you cannot destroy that idea. You may destroy the people that carry the idea on the battlefield, but, ultimately, it is not the end of the story."

He said instead of government issuing threats to Biafran agitators, it should rather go to the South East and find out why they are agitating for another country and see what it could do to remedy the situation.

"Go into that environment and ask what are those things we can do to make you content, to make you feel part of this entity. Listen to some other Biafrans and ask them why they want to stay. But, don't go around saying 'the sovereignty of this country is indivisible, it is not negotiable.' That type of language would only make matters worse," Soyinka said.

He added that the agitation for Biafra has made it imperative for Nigerians to take yet another look at restructuring the country.

On Buhari's election, Soyinka said his preference for the president, during electioneering, was borne out of his conviction that he was a better candidate. He said the situation in the country was such that he reckoned that another four years of Jonathan could be disastrous for the country.

"At that time, we had reached the bottom. I believed that if the country underwent another four years under Jonathan, we could be in trouble. I then looked at Buhari. I talked to people They said he had changed."

He said he had weighed the options, knowing that the negatives on Buhari were his excesses.

"I don't like people who just jail others. Very reluctantly, I weighed the option and was convinced that the country would be better under Buhari," he said.

The Nobel Laureate said his conviction was based on the fact that Buhari could not be worse than Abacha, declaring: "I said if he deviated, we will fight him. Look at what is coming out , the rot. You can see we didn't make a mistake."
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‘What can we do to make Igbo feel they belong, not alienated' – Soyinka

~Vanguard, Nigeria. 

Nobel laureate, ProfessorWole Soyinka, has urged the Federal Government to employ more diplomacy in handling the agitation for the Republic of Biafra.

Soyinka said statements like "Nigeria is indivisible", "This won't happen under my watch," "Nigeria's unity is non-negotiable" would not help matters.

The Nobel laureate spoke in an interview on Channels Television programme, Channels Books' Club.

Agitation for the Republic of Biafra gained more traction recently following the arrest of Director of outlawed Biafra Radio, Nnamdi Kanu.

The protesters had taken over the Niger Bridge, Onitsha, Anambra State blocking traffic and it took the intervention of security agents before they could be dislodged, leaving some persons dead in its wake.

Soyinka asked President Muhammadu Buhari to approach the agitation in a more diplomatic way, pointing out that he had said earlier that Biafra cannot be defeated.

According to him, ”Once an idea has taken off, you may defeat those behind it in a war but that does not mean the end of the idea."

But he lamented that he had been misunderstood at the time.

He said the attitude of the government should be to sit down with the those leading the renewed agitation and ask: "What can we do to make the Igbo feel part of the country, what can we do to make them to feel that they belong and not alienated.

"This is what we are ready to push for in the overall governance content of the country. It is not to be carrying on that this will not happen under my watch; Nigeria is indivisible, Nigeria's unity is non-negotiable, he stated"