Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has described President Goodluck Jonathan as someone suffering from a bad conscience.
“The most generous response that can be given to President Jonathan’s recent statement on the people’s fuel subsidy protest is that he is suffering from a bad conscience.
“The worst – which I fear is closer to the truth – is that he is lamentably alienated from the true pulse of the nation, thanks perhaps to the poor, eager-to-please quality of his analysts."
Prof Soyinka was reacting to the President’s comment in Lagos on Wednesday that the January 2012 fuel subsidy removal protests were sponsored.
He said, “Since I have had the opportunity to contest this perception of the protest with him directly, it is clear what kind of interpretative diet he prefers.
The nation needs all the luck it can get.”
Condemning the President’s use of force to quell the protests, Soyinka described the action as a violation of the people’s constitutional rights and dismissed Jonathan’s allegation that the protests were sponsored.
He said, “This should be seen as a grave danger to democracy, and a warning.
Both the participants and those who, like myself, were unavoidably absent, that lent both vocal and moral support to the demonstration, have been maligned and insulted by such reductionist reasoning.
“The culture of public protest appears to be an alien territory to Jonathan, which is somewhat surprising, considering the fact that he has not only lived in this nation as a citizen, but served in various political offices.
“He has lived through the terror reign of the late Gen. Sani Abacha, whose ruthless misuse of the military and the secret service did not prevent demonstrations against perceived injustice and truncation of people’s rights.
“Jonathan’s pronouncements truly boggle the mind.
What is this obsession with bottled water, comedians and musical artists? Must demonstrators drink water from the gutter? Is protest no longer viable when sympathisers cater to their needs, supply decent water and food rations?"
