Soyinka Seeks Non-Partisan Approach to Boko Haram War

 

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has said that Nigeria needs to seek non-partisan approach towards solving the problem posed by the Boko Haram sect to the country.

Soyinka said this in Osogbo on Monday at colloquium organised by the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding entitled “Fundamental Imperatives of Cohabitation Faith and Secularism.”

Soyinka, who is the Chairman of CBCIU, said that the killings by the sect transcended partisan politics adding every Nigerian, irrespective of religious or political leaning, must rise up against it.

He described the  incessant killings by the  sect as a war against the nation.

He said, “What is happening now goes beyond politics. I think there should be a non-partisan approach  to it. Enough atrocities have been committed, programmed, structured atrocities with a goal in view.

“What is happening is not unique to Nigeria and I think there are histories we can learn from – either to reject the solutions there  or play varitions with them – but a truthful and objective analysis of them.  This is not a partisan situation.

“I said it about four years ago before David Mark and one governor that this is a war situation. It is internal war, it can’t be called civil war but this nation is at war with itself. A war situation is a non-partisan situation. This  is not the time to start playing politics  with what is approaching. It is happening again in Abuja. We can’t continue to smear mentholatum over leprosy. It doesn’t get us anywhere.”

He described the killing of students in Bunu Yadi in Borno State and the killing of students travelling to sit last Saturday Unified Tertiary Matriculation  Examination as highly condemnable.

He said that thinking that what was happening  in the North did not concern those down South was erroneous.

Soyinka said that the emergence of religious centers along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway constituted nuisance to travelers on the ever-busy road. He blamed Christians for starting it.

He said that the Muslims waited for a long time before some of them joined, saying the road would have been totally blocked if traditional worshippers had also located their camps along the highway.