WOLE SOYINKA CONDEMNS PRESIDENT TINUBU’S SPEECH

The Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has attacked President Bola Tinubu’s Sunday broadcast for neglecting to address security agencies’ use of fatal force to put an end to #EndHunger protests that started last Thursday throughout Nigeria.

President Tinubu’s close supporter Soyinka, 90, claimed that the President’s decision not to bring up the issue during his speech was an approval of the security agencies’ continued adherence to the Pact of Ignorance.

Shortly after noon on Saturday, journalists gathered near the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja to cover the protests were met with live bullets by police and SSS operatives.

According to reports, numerous individuals have been hurt and around 40 people have died in Nigeria since Thursday.

Soyinka denounced the use of live ammunition to scatter demonstrators, emphasising that similar nationwide demonstrations occurred in France as recently as 2022 and 2023 and that the protests themselves were not exclusive to Nigeria.

The academic went on to say that the country was long overdue to give up permanently and called the use of deadly force by security agents “outdated.”

He went on to say that if the nation’s protests were quieted as they had been, it might turn into a revolution.