Soyinka Shreds Tinubu’s Speech, Says It Did Not Address Brutal Crackdown On Protesters

Professor Wole Soyinka, a Nobel laureate, has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s nationwide address, claiming it failed to address security forces’ brutal crackdown on #EndBadGovernance protesters.

Angry Nigerians had taken to major cities across the country to complain about the high cost of living, hardship, hunger, and poverty, which they blamed on Federal Government policies such as the removal of fuel subsidies and the floating of the naira.

Some people have been killed over the last four days as protests turned violent in some states. Worried about the situation, President Tinubu delivered his first nationwide speech following the demonstrations. The President urged calm, stating unequivocally that the subsidy removal would go ahead.

However, in a statement released on Sunday, Soyinka specifically criticised the steps taken by the President since the protests began.

“His outline of the government’s remedial action since its inception, aimed at preventing such an outbreak, will undoubtedly receive expert and sustained attention, both for effectiveness and content analysis.
“My primary concern, quite predictably, is the continued deterioration of the state’s seizure of protest management, an area in which the presidential address fell woefully short,” Soyinka stated.

According to Soyinka, “the nation’s security agencies cannot pretend unawareness of alternative models for emulation, civilised advances in security intervention.”

“Such short-changing of civic deserving individuals, regrettably, empowers security forces to operate with impunity and condemns the nation to a seemingly unbreakable cycle of resentment and reprisals.

“The use of live bullets by the state in response to civic protests becomes the central issue. Even tear gas remains questionable in most situations, and it is certainly an abuse in clearly peaceful protests.
“Hunger marches are a universal S.O.S., not limited to Nigeria. They do belong in a class of their own, regardless of the collateral claims emblazoned on posters.

“They serve as a wake-up call to governance that a tipping point has been reached, providing a testing ground for governance awareness of public desperation.
“The tragic response to the ongoing hunger marches in parts of the country, for which notice was served, represents a step backwards that takes the country even further back than the fatal culmination of the watershed ENDSARS protests.”

“It evokes pre-independence – that is, colonial – acts of disdain, a passage that inspired the late stage pioneer Hubert Ogunde’s folk opera BREAD AND BULLETS, earning that nationalist serial persecution and proscription by the colonial government,” he explained.

See the entire statement….

The Hunger March as a Universal Mandate

I set my alarm for this morning to ensure that I did not miss President Bola Tinubu’s eagerly anticipated address to the nation on the current unrest in the country. His outline of the government’s remedial action since its inception, aimed at preventing such an outbreak, will undoubtedly receive expert and sustained attention for effectiveness as well as content analysis. My primary concern, as expected, is the state’s continued deterioration of protest management, an area in which the presidential address fell significantly short. Unfortunately, such short-changing of civic deserving individuals empowers security forces to operate with impunity, condemning the nation to a seemingly unbreakable cycle of resentment and reprisals.

Live bullets as state response to civic protest – that becomes the core issue. Even tear gas remains questionable in most circumstances, certainly an abuse in situations of clearly peaceful protest.  Hunger marches constitute a universal S.O.S, not peculiar to the Nigerian nation. They belong indeed in a class of their own, never mind the collateral claims emblazoned on posters. They serve as summons to governance that a breaking point has been reached and thus, a testing ground for governance awareness of public desperation. The tragic response to the ongoing hunger marches in parts of the nation, and for which notice was served, constitutes a retrogression that takes the nation even further back than the deadly culmination of the watershed ENDSARS protests. It evokes pre-independence – that is, colonial – acts of disdain, a passage that induced the late stage pioneer Hubert Ogunde’s folk opera BREAD AND BULLETS, earning that nationalist serial persecution and proscription by the colonial government.

The nation’s security agencies cannot pretend unawareness of alternative models for emulation, civilized advances in security intervention. Need we recall the nationwide 2022/23 editions of what is generally known as the YELLOW VEST movement in France? Perhaps it is time to make such scenarios compulsory viewing in policing curriculum. In all of the coverage that I watched, I did not catch one single instance of a gun leveled at protesters, much less fired at them even during direct physical confrontations. The serving of bullets where bread is pleaded is ominous retrogression, and we know what that eventually proves – a prelude to far more desperate upheavals, not excluding revolutions.

The time is long overdue, surely, to abandon, permanently, the anachronistic resort to lethal means by the security agencies of governance. No nation is so under-developed, materially impoverished, or simply internally insecure as to lack the will to set an example. All it takes is to recall its own history, then exercise the will to commence a lasting transformation, inserting a break in the chain of lethal responses against civic society. Today’s marchers may wish to consider adopting the key songs of Hubert Ogunde’s BREAD AND BULLETS, if only to inculcate a sense of shame in the continuing failure to transcend the lure of colonial inheritance where we all were at the receiving end. One way or the other, this vicious cycle must be broken.

Wole SOYINKA
A.R,I. Abeokuta