Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has criticized President Bola Tinubu’s recent national broadcast for failing to address the crackdown on protesters by security agencies.
Some Nigerians have taken to the streets, protesting against what they deem bad governance, with demonstrations starting on Thursday to amplify their demands.
The protests, which began peacefully, took a dramatic turn on the first day as some miscreants hijacked the movements in various states, resulting in the destruction and looting of property.
On Saturday, police and other security agencies used force, including tear gas and live ammunition, to disperse peaceful protesters in multiple states, including the nation’s capital, Abuja.
However, police report that seven people have died during the protests, asserting that none were killed by security forces.
In a statement on Sunday following Tinubu’s address, Soyinka expressed concern over the president’s omission of the shootings and killings of protesters demanding good governance.
The celebrated Nigerian playwright, who has faced heavy criticism for not condemning President Tinubu’s policies, denounced the use of live ammunition and tear gas by the Nigeria Police Force to manage civic protests, warning that such actions only lead to further violence.
He stated: “I set my alarm clock for this morning to ensure that I did not miss President Bola Tinubu’s long-awaited address to the nation regarding the current unrest.
“His outline of the government’s remedial actions since his administration began will undoubtedly receive expert scrutiny in terms of effectiveness and content analysis. My primary concern, as expected, is the continuing deterioration of the state’s approach to managing protests, an area in which the presidential address fell conspicuously short.
“Such neglect of civic rights regrettably empowers security forces in their exercise of impunity and condemns the nation to a seemingly unbreakable cycle of resentment and reprisals.
“The use of live ammunition in response to civic protest is the core issue. Even the deployment of tear gas is questionable in most circumstances and constitutes an abuse during clearly peaceful protests. Hunger marches are a universal outcry, not unique to Nigeria. They belong to their own category, regardless of the collateral messages emblazoned on posters.
“They serve as summons to governance, signaling that a breaking point has been reached, thus providing a testing ground for the administration’s awareness of public desperation. The tragic response to the ongoing hunger marches in parts of the nation, despite prior warnings, represents a regression that takes the country further back than the deadly culmination of the watershed ENDSARS protests.
“It evokes pre-independence, or colonial, disdain, reminiscent of the late pioneer Hubert Ogunde’s folk opera BREAD AND BULLETS, which faced nationalist persecution and proscription by colonial authorities.”
Soyinka noted that “the nation’s security agencies cannot pretend to be unaware of alternative models for emulation and civilized advances in security intervention.”
He remarked, “Do we need to recall the nationwide 2022/23 editions of what is generally known as the YELLOW VEST movement in France? Perhaps it is time to make such scenarios compulsory viewing in policing curricula. In all the coverage I watched, I did not witness a single instance of a gun directed at protesters, let alone fired at them, even during direct confrontations.
“The provision of bullets where bread is pleaded signifies ominous regression, and we know what that ultimately leads to—a prelude to far more desperate upheavals, including revolutions.
“It is long overdue to permanently abandon the outdated reliance on lethal means by the security agencies of governance. No nation is so underdeveloped, materially impoverished, or internally insecure as to lack the will to set a positive example. It only requires a recall of its own history and the commitment to initiate lasting change, breaking the chain of lethal responses to civil society.
“Today’s marchers might consider adopting the key songs from Hubert Ogunde’s BREAD AND BULLETS, if only to instill a sense of shame regarding our continued failure to transcend the remnants of colonial legacy, where we were all victims. One way or another, this vicious cycle must be broken.”
