Nigeria’s Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, says the insecurity which has almost brought some regions of the country to their knees is self-inflicted due to the weakness of the leadership in those troubled parts of the nation.
According to Soyinka, the silence of religious and community leaders when the religious rights of others were trampled upon, often terminally, was self-evident and lamented that leaders did little to halt the evil trend, which is now threatening to consume the entire country.
Soyinka’s position is contained in his acceptance speech at the inaugural award of the Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership in Lagos Wednesday.
President Goodluck Jonathan described the choice of Soyinka for the award as befitting. Represented by the Vice president Namadi Sambo, Jonathan said the Awolowo Leadership Award was in tandem with the Federal Government’s initiative on transformational leadership, which is designed to encourage purposeful leadership in the country.
Former Head of State and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Awol?w? Foundation, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, chaired the occasion, while traditional rulers and politicians were in attendance.
In his speech entitled “Winding down history: Religion and nation, power and freedom,” Soyinka said: “I address you in all frankness. Leadership in the currently troubled regions of the nation has been remiss.
The signs were over-abundant. I have lamented, on numerous platforms, the delinquent silence of religious and community leaders where the religious rights of others were trampled upon, often terminally, where again and again martyrdom became commonplace – yes, the genuine martyrdom – made up of innocents, singly, in sectors, often brutally but always with the confidence of immunity.”
He pointed out that though there were patriotic interventions by some persons in the region to save the situation, those positive actions were never emulated, instead violence and impunity increased.
“The tragedy of the nation is that these, and allied initiatives did not find emulation remotely proportionate to the incidents and intensity of violent bigotry and impunity – and at levels that they deserved.
So, it is not merely staunching the grounds for recruitment that is the problem. There is also the issue of leadership. Of wrongful silence and inertia.
The folding of arms and the buttoning of lips when leadership – and not merely localised – desperately needed to lead and inflict exemplary punishment on violators of the freedom of belief, and existence of others.
The examples are too numerous and depressing, and this is hardly the occasion for a recital of human derelictions that only stir up negative memories. During that period of serial violations, we missed the strength, the vigorous conviction of voices such as we have heard in recent times, voices of community and traditional leaders, political figures of iconic stature.”
According to him, Nigerians missed such intensity of conviction, such stern, uncompromising denunciation when individuals, with or without public profile, were being systematically mown down for alleged religious offences, some of which took place, not even within our borders but in remote, frozen regions as the Scandinavian nations or the United States (U.S.).
“Again and again, the innocents, the real martyrs paid the supreme price. My intention is not to weigh down any sector of this nation with the burden of guilt but to say to you, to me, to all of us: No more evasion.
The knives, the cudgels, the matchbox and burning tyres that decapitated Akulaku, that incinerated the female teacher and invigilator Oluwaseesin and a host of others, including school children and infants, at the slightest or no provocation have given way to far more efficient but indiscriminate means of human disposal – but still in the hands of the same malformed minds, now grouped under the fatalist banner of the Party of Death.
“Individually and collectively, we are at war, and the enemy is not hidden. Of its own volition it has given itself a name, a profile, and an agenda. Others have sprung up, geared to outdo their obsessed predecessors.
Let each community look into its past, and see how both inertia and covert gleefulness have fuelled the raging inferno. Nowhere is immune, not even those which presently appear unaffected.
Now is the time to close ranks. Making up for past derelictions is not a sectional task, but a collective undertaking. Protection of our hard won Freedom – against any threat – is the imperative of our times.”
The literary icon advised that religious bigots and fanatics should be exposed, isolated and hunted down. He said: “I do however vehemently denounce the use to which religion has been put, and that means, I indict such abusers. And we must not be afraid to expose them; to defend ourselves against them and isolate them.
Where they have intruded on our peace – or even fragile mutual accommodation – we must hunt them down, in here, or pursue them wherever lodged. To Mauritania. To Somalia. Or Mali.
“Arrest them where we can, and re-educate them. If they have committed crimes against humanity during their period of delusion – ensure that they make open restitution before competent institutions before re-admittance into the parent community.
If they refuse, if they prove incorrigible, then we must punish them. Openly, not secretively, as indication that we, as rival theologians of the Religion of Freedom, will not submit to the tyranny of the few.”
Soyinka recalled that Awolowo, a Christian, set up a pilgrim’s board in 1958 for Muslims in order to help them fulfill one of the seven pillars of Islam and added that that action eventually became the springboard for demand for parity by Christians who do not have any religious obligation to go on pilgrimage.
“It is my view that some of those demands should have been dismissed outright – certainly that of government-assisted pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Nothing in the Christian religion makes pilgrimage mandatory to any destination in the world – so there is really no basis for claims of parity.
All it has resulted in, predictably for us in this nation, has been an encouragement to our affluent classes for extended tourist destinations, this time under the guise of religious obligation. It was only a matter of time before this class also felt that the act of tourism was not enough.
There had to be a title for the outlay on that personal excursion, and thus came into usage the title of JP – no, not Justice of the Peace but – Jerusalem Pilgrim. You style yourself el-Hajj, I call myself JP! Of course, it all has to do with the promiscuous environment of ostentation that had become the hallmark of national life”, he declared, adding that Awolowo would obviously be upset in grave with the level of decadence in the society today.
“I was a beneficiary of the liberal educational policy – at tertiary level – of the man whose memory we are here to honour, and now, today, I find myself recipient of yet another largesse, an inestimable honour at the hands – albeit post-humously – of that same sage”, he stated.
Meanwhile, family members, friends and political associates of the late Awolowo gathered at his Ikenne, Ogun State country home yesterday as they marked his 104th posthumous birthday.
Awolowo, the former Premier of the Old Western Region, passed on in 1987 but his admirers, especially his political associates, believe he still lives on. Therefore they gathered at Ikenne to celebrate his birthday on March 6.
At the event, which began with a communion service at Our Saviour’s Anglican Church, Ikenne, and ended with entertainment at his residence, were the former Governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande; former Transport Minister, Chief Ebenezer Babatope; and Chairman, Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Mr. Jide Adeniji, among others.
In her brief remark, the matriarch of the Awolowo Dynasty, Chief Hannah Idowu Dideolu (HID) Awolowo, appealed to Nigerian politicians to emulate the good virtues of her late husband, which she listed to include honesty, hardwork, commitment and selfless service to the common man, if the country was to move forward.
Yeye, as she is fondly called, emphasised that “if only politicians can listen and follow the legacy my late husband left behind, Nigeria will be better off.”
According to her, her late husband was not only nice but also kind-hearted and loving, adding: “I still remember him as if he is still alive. I will never ever forget him until I join him.”
Speaking to journalists, Jakande, who was one of Awolowo’s closest political associates, described him as a Nigerian whose immense contributions to the nation’s development could not be forgotten, insisting that his legacies remained unequalled, and would continue to live in the minds of people.
Also speaking at the event, Babatope described Awolowo as a visionary leader who always put the interest of Nigerians at heart .
He noted: “He was a great and visionary leader who always thought about the problem of the country and how to solve it; there was never a dull moment with him.”
For Adeniji, researchers would continue to work on the legacy the late sage left behind. He urged politicians to emulate his “uprightness and integrity.”
The eldest daughter of the late sage, Mrs. Omotola Oyediran, said her father was a loving and “highly devoted father,” adding that “every good thing children could ask for in a father was in him.”
Earlier in his sermon at the communion service, Ven. Funsho Babajide urged Nigerians to continue to remember Awolowo for his selfless service to the nation. He asked Nigerian leaders to emulate his good work, as he was a man full of passion for mankind.
Nguardian
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