State of the nation: Soyinka blasts Buhari, says ‘it’s finished’

Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has again lampooned President Muhammadu Buhari over the state of the nation, saying “it is finished.”

Soyinka, who faulted the presidential pardon granted to some Nigerians convicted for corruption, said Buhari had placed all his eggs in one basket, which had “squashed against Nigerian faces that they shall not forget – or wipe off – in a hurry.”

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His position came a few days after the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Kukah, criticised Buhari over insecurity, corruption and division in Nigeria.

Kukah in his Easter message on Sunday titled, ‘To mend a broken nation: The Easter metaphor’, said Buhari had destroyed Nigeria.

Soyinka in a statement titled, “A putrid presidential Easter egg,” backed the position of Kukah.

He also agreed with former President Olusegun Obasanjo who said Buhari’s presidency had offered its best to Nigeria.

The statement read in part: “Coming from a leader who had placed all his eggs in one basket, labeled anti-corruption, this is one egg squashed against Nigerian faces that they shall not forget – or wipe off – in a hurry.

“It evokes the legend of Pandora’s box, whose contents are alleged to constitute all the ills that plague the world. Putrid to the core, allied to power provocations in numerous variations, such as catapulting a notorious player in the martyrdom of a serving minister of justice” to the hub of governance’s wheel, these define the nature of bequests that have brought the nation to this moment of near dissolution.

“Precedents are no consolation, no excuses. One states the obvious in remarking that precedents either undermine or reinforce principles, and aspiring offenders, especially in the political domain, are encouraged or inhibited by the ease or difficulty of access to the fount of mercy.”

“Officeholders, we presume, are constrained by the existence of that dangling Sword of Damocles – simply knowing that one day, the cloak of immunity will turn threadbare, and the awaited day of reckoning finds them answerable. Clearly, not any longer.

“You will forgive, though disagree with me, I know, for clambering onto the Easter wagon myself, to echo the words of the one whose passage through the world the Easter season commemorates: It is finished!”