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My Stance On Muslim-Muslim Ticket – Wole Soyinka

Professor Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate has strongly condemned the disagreement generated by the Muslim/Muslim presidential ticket as Nigerians head towards general elections next year. PM NEWS reports.

According to him such agitation either for or against Muslim/Muslim ticket, which is currently heating up the polity, is unnecessary. Information Guide Nigeria


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He said this yesterday in Abeokuta, Ogun State as moderator of the lecture/interactive session organised by the historic Abeokuta Club to mark its 50th anniversary.

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The theme of the lecture was: Good Governance or Misgovernance: The Contract called Democracy.

“This gathering here could not have been more timely. In fact, I am hoping that a series of this kind of encounter will take place all over the nation between now and the long-awaited day next year. I think it will help many people clarify a number of things in minds before that day and maybe move a little bit away towards pulling us out of the morass in which we find ourselves, if we want to be very honest about this. jamb results

“I think we’ve all come here with a lot of negative image hanging on our necks. And also some measure of hope, some modicum of illumination,” Soyinka said.

The Nobel Laureate, acknowledging the presence of secondary school students in uniform whom he said events like that for him were primarily for, also used the opportunity to condemn the controversies triggered by the Muslim/Muslim presidential ticket and whether students should be allowed to wear religious garbs to schools.

“There is one other thing going on in my mind. And I think we have the experts here who will talk about it. There are some schoolchildren over there. And one wonderful thing about them for me is that they are in uniform. In other words, I cannot tell which one is a Christian, which one is a Muslim, which one is an Orisa worshipper, which one is a Zoroastrian, which one is a Buddhist. They are schoolchildren.

“They are equal and they are being encouraged to see one another as human beings, not as separate creatures. And I want to be informed if it is against democracy that schools insist that uniforms be worn by children so that they are not distinguished in a very dramatic way. So that they do not look at one another as different.

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“So now I’m talking to religionists. I’m saying why do you want to create such marked differentiation at that age, that impressionable age, when we need to teach our children to look at one another as equals, as the same people, the same entitled creatures of society?

“These are issues which I hope we will also touch. Because when we hear expressions like Muslim/Muslim ticket, Christian/Christian ticket, Orisa/Orisa worshipper ticket. This is where it all begins. This is where the nervousness begins. This is where the anxiety and the phobia begin. This is where it begins, when you teach the children to be different at an age when they are so impressionable. These are issues I hope you will help to resolve,” Soyinka maintained.

“We are gathered here in Abeokuta where something remarkable happened some years ago because Democracy, everybody says and agrees, is not just about elections. But it also involves elections. An election takes place for a purpose. The major purpose being to elect people to speak for us. We transfer to these representatives our burdens, our anxieties, our desires. And we go through this exercise, this expensive exercise by the way often fraught with danger. It’s amazing, it shouldn’t happen but people actually lose lives over elections.“And so when you elect people to represent you, one expects them not only to do their job but be left alone to do their job, not to have their mission, their responsibility being truncated by any means. That is usually known as a coup d’etat. And yet in this state, in this very town elected representatives were locked out of their assembly hall for roughly 15 months.”Soyinka however said he wasn’t trying to reopen old wounds but was only asking questions, adding that the said governor had since apologized to him.

“Now I am not trying to rake up old wounds. Don’t misunderstand me. No. I am asking questions. I am asking for illumination. And we cannot go forward if we do not take stock of the past so that we do not repeat or allow the same errors to be committed.

“For instance, I can tell you that the governor who is responsible for that coup detat has since apologized to me. He came after he left office. He apologized. So I am not trying to roast him or put him on trial. And in fact, normally, it should be a dead issue.”

He also wondered why he should be blamed for not supporting the then President Olusegun Obasanjo’s bid for re-election as when that coup detat was happening he turned a blind eye and pretended as though the issue had been resolved

“But unfortunately. And this is why I ask the question. What do we understand by democracy? Because when the person who was in charge of the whole nation at that time wanted his re-election and lost, some of us are being accused of being responsible for his fate,” he said, adding that when the legislators were locked out, he put a call through to the President at that time, especially when he made the governor his campaign manager.

“And eventually I picked up the phone and called the President that time, especially when he then made that governor his campaign manager for re-election. I phoned him and said, ‘What signal are you sending to people, and especially to the Ogun electorate from whom you expect support? You are appointing as your campaign manager somebody who has truncated in such a blatant way, in such an insulting way, the will of the people of Ogun State, who did nothing.

“An appeal was made to you. You pretended it wasn’t happening. And now to add insult to injury, you named that person your campaign manager for election. What democratic message do you think you are sending out? I would tell what his reply was. He said, ‘Ah Prof, do you mean they haven’t sorted out that problem yet?’ That’s the president of this nation. And yet some idiots expect somebody like me, without knowledge, without encounter, to come out and support the attempt of that president to remain in power.

“I want to understand what kind of democratic understanding even the electorate themselves carry to the polls. And so when I come out and say ‘Do not vote for this and this person I know what I am talking about. I know what crimes they have committed against the electorate. I know what undermining they have done to the very principles of democracy. And I know what dereliction of duty, what tacit encouragement and support they have given to those who truncate the process of democracy.

“The question on my mind really, and when I use the word, democracy, I am not quoting it in general terms. But I am hoping to be enlightened before I leave here what we understand by democracy. What the electorate understand by democracy, what the rulers and the commentators even understand by democracy. And why do I say this? Why is this uppermost in my mind?

“I hope in the process of our deliberations you will be able to enlighten me on what is expected of those who have been disenfranchised, whose votes have been taken away when their representatives are not allowed to represent them. What else is the meaning of democracy?” Soyinka asked.

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Goodnews

Essien, Goodnews is a gruaduate of Communication Arts, University of Uyo, Uyo; Currently working at Infoguide Media as a news writer.

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