Jonathan, Buhari are ‘problematic’ candidates, says Soyinka

Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, has criticised the
two frontline candidates in the March 28
presidential election, President Goodluck Jonathan
of the Peoples Democratic Party and Maj. Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) of the All Progressives
Congress.
Soyinka, in an interview with the BBC on Monday,
insisted that the political parties should have
come up with far better options than the two
leading candidates.
He described President Jonathan, who is running
for a second term and the opposition leader,
Buhari, as “problematic candidates.”
“There is a huge albatross hanging [around] the
necks of the two main candidates. I can
understand the dilemma which many voters have,”
Soyinka said.
He added that “one contender is troubled by the
present, the other by the past.”
Soyinka also decried the lack of fair play in the
election, saying the spirit of “let’s have a fair war”
was not yet deep enough.
He faulted Jonathan for the failure to rescue the
more than 200 schoolgirls abducted from Chibok
in April 2014.
“What happened was a clear failure of leadership
– a slow reaction, an inadequate reaction and
response,” Soyinka told the BBC. He stressed that
while responsibility for the Boko Haram crisis
rested with President Jonathan, the government
could not be held solely responsible for the entire
jihadist problem as it began under previous
governments.
“Buhari and his partner, the late Gen. Tunde
Idiagbon, after (former military head of state) Sani
Abacha, I think they represented the most brutal
face of military dictatorship. There is no question
about that,” Soyinka said.
“But the environment changes, circumstances
change and… I look at the possibility of a genuine
internal transformation in some individuals. I’ve
been disappointed before and we must always be
ready to be disappointed again,” he added.
Soyinka, however, said Nigerians should be ready
to “go back to the trenches stand up against
misrule from whoever wins the election.
“Nigerians should be prepared to deal with any
new betrayal by any ruler with the same passion
and commitment…. as they did with the late Sani
Abacha because we cannot continue this cycle of
repetitious evil and irresponsibility.”
On what to do to counter the Boko Haram sect,
whose activities was cited for the postponement
of the election, Soyinka called for “an aerial
bombardment with weapons of the mind” in
addition to the military offensive.
“All kinds of propaganda leaflets should have
been raining in those areas because not all
members of Boko Haram are convinced. They
need to know there is an exit and the state will
take care of them. Then the waverers’ minds have
to be reinforced on the positive side – on the side
of humanity.
“The kind of propaganda being used now between
the political parties, just a fraction of that should
have gone into attacking Boko Haram,” he added.
Asked whether he believed the nation could be
dismembered in the next 10 years, he said, “I
doubt it very much. The threats of
dismemberment have been going on so long that
one of these days there is going to be a wish
fulfilled.
“The idea of either dismembering at the cost of
human lives, as the Boko Haram people are trying
to do with their caliphate delusions or to force
people to stay together as happened in the case
of the [1967-1970] Biafra war, doesn’t make
sense, it’s an abuse of intelligence.
“Arrangements can be made in which people stick
together under protocols of association which
allow some kind of autonomy for certain issues
and other cases centralised policies,” he said.
Soyinka also noted that the huge amount being
expended on campaigns would inevitably lead to
broken electoral promises.
“What does this make of the incoming
government? This money came in from
somewhere. It means such candidates are going
to owe, they are obliged to interests which are not
necessarily in the best interests of the nation.
“So, a lot of the electorate will be disappointed at
the failure – the reneging on electoral promises –
because there may not be funds for the fulfilment
of those promises,” he said.