Impunity: Soyinka Faults Jonathan, IG
Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka has lampooned President Goodluck Jonathan over increasing rate of impunity by his government, saying the nation’s leader is worse than neo-Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar.
The Literary icon who said this at a press briefing in Lagos yesterday also accused President Jonathan of fueling the crisis at the National Assembly in which lawmakers resorted to scaling the gate of the Assembly complex in order to gain access to their chambers after been prevented by the police.
According to him, despite the fact that the president was democratically elected, his actions had showed that he is given to dictatorial tendencies.
Soyinka who cited the split in Nigeria Governors’ Forum last year in which 16 governors had the final say over 19 other governors, said the incident revealed that Jonathan was willing to do anything to achieve his political goals irrespective of the circumstance.
Soyinka also took a swipe the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Suleiman Abba, said he was appointed for the sole purpose of achieving Jonathan’s selfish ambition.
He lamented that it was unfortunate that Jonathan would order policemen to prevent lawmakers from entering the National Assembly on the same day that they were to meet to discuss the extension of emergency rule in the North-East.
Soyinka who lauded the lawmakers for scaling the gate said, “The act of scaling gates and walls to fulfil their duty by the people must be set down as their finest hour. They must be applauded, not derided. If shame belongs anywhere, it belongs to the IGP and his lavish adherence to illegal and unconstitutional instructions- to undermine a democratic structure, and one- to make matters worse-convoked in response to an emergency of dire concern.
“What sticks to this policeman (Abba) is worse than shame, it is infamy. Such a public servant deserves to be publicly pilloried, tried and meted a punishment that is appropriate to treasonable acts, if only to serve as a deterrent to others in positions of responsibility under the law. To demand less is to reduce ourselves below the status free citizens of a free nation.”
“For this latest outrage, one in an escalating series of impunity, the buck stops yet again at the presidency and that incumbent, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, continues to surprise us in ways that very few have conjectured.”
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