By KEMI KASUMU
“The law states that Nigeria shall be an indivisible, indissoluble entity. If anybody wants to break up the country, he simply should go to National Assembly to remove the section, else, whoever dares, the constitution requires President Muhammadu Buhari or any sitting President to crush him. Where then does Prof Soyinka see his ground on which the Federal Government will be embarssed should Igboho go to court?” He asked.
When the report of Nobel Laureate Prof Wole Soyinka’s BBC interview filtered into the public airspace on Monday with him accusing the Federal Government of Nigeria of kidnap crime against a suspect who, himself, is widely known and talked about as serial kidnapper, killer, destroyer, arsonist and officially declared terrorist group’s leader, Nnamdi Kanu, many tongues and lips wagged.
Immediately, the Abeokuta, Ogun State-born octogenarian was branded by angry citizens as pro-enemy as, it was said, he could not see the evil in the insecurity afflicted by the terrorist, who was recently re-arrested after he had jumped bail and had used his Radio Biafra to spread fake news and inciting messages that had claimed many lives of innocent Nigerians for over two years.
Prof. Wole Soyinka said he believed that the Nigerian government “kidnapped” the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
Some of the concerned citizens, who were shocked by the professor’s outburst, said they could not believe their ears that an intellectual of international standard like Soyinka, who would wish that heavens were let loose in the matter of terrorist Boko Haram and bandits in the North and who would not for once acknowledge the bombardment of same by Nigerian Government, easily took side pampering an equally dangerous terrorist group in IPOB simply because, they said, it is of Southern Nigerian coloration.
One of them, therefore, asked, “Is anybody still searching for destroyers of Nigeria with this kind of revelation coming up? We even heard of one PANDEF also asking the government to come and explain in what country and how it arrested Kanu. It is freedom taken too far by a people, who has constitutional duty to work with state services to ensure security and peace of their country but only cry over their right while turning eyes away from their duty.”
Soyinka reporterly told BBC Pidgin in an interview published on Monday that he believed Kanu was kidnapped by the Nigerian government.
The professor of English said there would be trouble when the truth about Kanu’s arrest comes out, adding that there are concerns the Nigerian government acted outside international law, unmindful of the fact that what has become the common goal of many patriotic Nigerians is the singular desire of ending insecurity in the land and which all citizens, old and young, should key into.
Soyinka speaking on both sides said: “The second issue has to do with the way Kanu conducted himself outside the nation. The level of the hate talks from Kanu outside was unfortunate. But for me, hate talks is an issue that the laws of any nation can judge so it comes back to the issue of whether it was right to quote and unquote kidnap, you can say intercept as much as you want, but I think they kidnapped Nnamdi Kanu and that is wrong internationally and also wrong morally.”
According to the interview, he even asked the government of his own country Nnamdi Kanu calls Zoo and has helped destroy so much accept he committed wrong against the terrorist keader.
Soyinka also asked the government to apologize to Yoruba tribalist fighter, Sunday Igboho, over the raid by security operatives at his residence on Thursday 1 July, 2021.
He said that if Sunday Igboho, against whom a cache of weapons including several AK-47 guns were found and 13 illegally armed guards arrested after opening fire on security operatives, goes to court the government would be embarrassed.
Some citizens are, however, asking questions to know on what ground of the law is Soyinka speaking from, considering the fact that the Constitution of the country does not recognise the course (secessionism) for which Igboho was allegedly stockpiling weapons to fight a war.
“The law states that Nigeria shall be an indivisible, indissoluble entity. If anybody wants to break up the country, he simply should go to National Assembly to remove the section, else, whoever dares, the constitution requires President Muhammadu Buhari or any sitting President to crush him. Where then does Prof Soyinka see his ground on which the Federal Government will be embarssed should Igboho go to court?” He asked.
The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Malam Abubakar Malami (SAN), had announced Nnamdi Kanu’s re-arrest and extradition to Nigeria last week. He, however, did disclose the country where he was “intercepted”, which many said was not necessary.
Speaking further on the re-arrest, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the Federal Government trailed the IPOB leader for two years after he jumped bail in 2017 before arresting him.
