President Muhammadu Buhari is under attack over his role and silence in the massacre that took place in Southern Kaduna.
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka yesterday criticised President
Muhammadu Buhari’s and Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s handling of the
southern Kaduna crisis, Guardian reports.
“If you ask why Gen. Buhari did not act fast enough when these
events took place, which degrade us as human beings, it was perhaps he
had been waiting for the governor of that state to send money to the
killers first for them to stop the killing,” Soyinka said.
Soyinka who supported Buhari’s bid for the presidency in 2015
openly criticised him and was dismayed at the manner the President
handled the massacre.
Soyinka said at the launch of a book, Religion and the Making of
Nigeria in Abuja yesterday that he was not astonished by the admission
of El-Rufai that he paid out money to foreigners to stop the carnage on
Nigerian soil.
“There was nothing new about it. Has appeasement to religious
forces not become a Nigerian face of justice and equity? First lethargy
and then appeasement. Was Boko Haram’s Muhammed Yusuf not a beneficiary
of appeasement in a similar fashion?
“What, however, concerns the rest of us, no matter the internal
wrangling, rivalries or controversies within any religion, is that the
innocent are often those who pay the highest price. The non-adherents to
one line of belief or another,” Soyinka said.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who was also at the launch lamented
the hypocrisy displayed by Nigerians on the issue of federal character,
wondering why cases related to religious violence were not brought to a
logical conclusion.
His words: “Very few people have been prosecuted for religious
violence but none has ever been brought to conclusion. Why is it that
such cases are never concluded? Too many cases of high-profile murders
that are not concluded in this country.
“National character is very hypocritical. When we are playing
football, we all clamour for the best legs because we want to win. We
don’t ask how many Muslims or Christians are on the team. When you are
sick, nobody asks the religion of the doctor, we only ask about
competencies.”
Meanwhile, Buhari yesterday met with security chiefs over the
prevailing insecurity in southern Kaduna, the Niger Delta and other
parts of the country. At the meeting held at the Presidential Villa in
Abuja, the Minister of Defence, Mohammed Dan-Ali, disclosed that troops
had been moved to southern Kaduna while negotiations were ongoing to end
the killings in the area.
The military also said it had concluded an arrangement to launch an
operation as part of measures to completely restore peace in the wake
of the insecurity in the area.The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur
Buratai, who gave the indication at the end of the security meeting,
yesterday disclosed that the exercise would also cover some parts of
Plateau and Kano states. He said the operation was akin to the other
military endeavours in the Niger Delta, among others.
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