campaign for road safety in Oyo State. This initiative was very successful and became a model of traffic safety for other states in Nigeria.
Wole Soyinka and a lot of other people agreed that President Shehu Shagari’s government was corrupt, and he led his criticisms. Shehu Shagari was then removed in a coup that installed Gen Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari banned his book
While Soyinka was in prison during the Civil War, he was denied access to writing materials but somehow had them smuggled in. He wrote a lot in that time, including his prison memoirs, The Man Died. When Buhari came into power, the book was banned after his anti-government rhetoric became unbearable.
Abacha sentenced him to death
In October 1994, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) named Wole Soyinka a Goodwill Ambassador for the promotion of African Culture, Human Rights and Freedom of Expression. The next month, General Sani Abacha suspended all civil liberties, and people like Wole Soyinka who were vocally against the Military were targets. Fearing for his safety, Soyinka escaped from Nigeria on a motorcycle via the ‘NADECO Route’ – through Benin Republic. Abacha later sentenced him to death in absentia for the continued criticism of his government. Luckily, the general died in 1998, and Soyinka returned home.
In April 2007, when Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure was coming to an end, Wole Soyinka called for the cancellation of the presidential elections that were held two weeks earlier. This is because it was beset with widespread fraud and violence. The election stood though, and the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was sworn in and remained president, till …
Protest to install GEJ
After Yar’Adua became very ill, and was away from Nigeria for about 50 days, Prof. Wole Soyinka and prominent members of civil society groups took their protest to the National Assembly, and demanded an immediate commencement of the process of impeaching the president. This was so that then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan could ascend to the presidency, and the country could move forward, as all the while the sick president was away, GEJ did not have full political power to lead Nigeria. One month later, a motion from the Nigerian Senate invested Goodluck Jonathan as Acting President of Nigeria.
“A serious government would have emplaced the ‘palliatives’ first, worked assiduously to ensure that they were effectively enforced, with, at the very least, a guaranteed stabilisation of the existing level of Nigerian subsistence – which was nothing to crow about in any case. Nothing remotely approaching this protective measure has taken place, only – business as usual.”
These were the words of Wole Soyinka, when he and other prominent Nigerians led thousands of protesters against the Fuel Subsidy removal by the Goodluck Jonathan government in 2012. They urged the president to rescind his decision to withdraw fuel subsidy, saying he should revert to the N65 pump price as it was anti-people. In the end, subsidy stayed, but pump price was increased to N97 per liter.
From Chibok with love
Wole Soyinka was heavily critical of the PDP led administration under President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, labelling it corrupt and naïve. In August 2014, Soyinka delivered a recording of his speech ‘From Chibok with Love’ to the World Humanist Congress in Oxford, bemoaning the plight of Chibok and the failure of government to secure the Northern Nigeria. While the current government has been poor, one cannot deny the fact that they have returned relative peace to the once war-torn Northern Nigeria.
This listicle is inspired by the people calling Wole Soyinka a hypocrite for not being as critical of the current government as he was of past governments. While I can understand where there are coming from, I still think it is ridiculous to expect an 83 year old man who has spent the better part of his life fighting for this country, and is now battling prostate cancer to continue being at the forefront of the struggle for a better Nigeria. Young people keep saying they want to le