Soyinka seeks non partisan approach to Boko Haram menace

Nobel Laureate, Professor 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 saying every Nigerian irrespective of religious or political leaning must rise up against it.

He described the incessant killings by the sect as nothing but a war with 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 solutions there or play varitions on them. but a truthful and obejctive 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 contribute 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 traveling to write last Saturday’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination as highly condemnable.

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

Soyinka said that the emergence of religious centers along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway constituted nuisance to travelers on the ever busy roads while blaming the Christian 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 religions worshipers also had placed their camps along the highway.
He lamented that Nigerians especially Christians and Muslims were always quick to get offended at anything they perceived was said against their religions.

According to him, the statement which Mallam Nasir El-Rufai was quoted to have said against Jesus Christ was not an insult but an analogy.

Soyinka said that he wished el-Rufai had not apologized saying there was a time he used veil being used by some Muslim women as an analogy and a Muslim youth asked him to apologise. He stated that he dammed the Mulsim youth ro do his worst.

He said, “Those who don’t understand t the language we are using, wether Yoruba, Hausa, or English should go back to school to learn language.”

He said that he missed the clash of uniforms which happened at the Baptist High School, Iwo describing it as the “first ecumenical gathering of school children.”

According to him, parents preached hatred by segregating their children from others because of different religious beliefs and social classes. This, he said, was wrong while describing it as poisoning the minds of the children.

Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, said that although religion had never been an issue among the Yoruba.

He said, “We are neutral as government but that does not mean that we don’t have our various religius beliefs as private individuals.”

He said that since all religions preached love, their adherents should imbibed this and allow others to worship God the way they had chosen.