Wole-Soyinka

Nobel laureate, prof. Wole Soyinka, has described comment of ex-governor of the old Kaduna State in the second republic, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, on Amotekun, a south-west security outfit,as a ‘making of tragedy’

Balarabe during an interview with a national daily had said the Western Nigeria Security Network code-named Operation Amotekun was part of the region’s plot to secede and declare Oduduwa Republic.

The security task force was the brainchild of the six South-West governors to tackle insecurity and criminality that pervades the region.

However, the launching of the outfit has ignited mixed reactions with Many leaders from the region commending the governors and expressing support for initiative, some individuals and interest groups in the north have expressed their displeasure for it and the Federal Government through the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, proscribing it.

But Soyinka in a statement, on Tuesday, said Balarabe’s position on the matter was hinged on fear and not guided by facts of the matter, adding that the octogenarian was ‘sadly’ wrong

Soyinka said, “Balarabe is sadly but I hope not tragically wrong. I invoke the tragic dimension here because the making of tragedy, especially for nations, often begins when fears are mistaken or promoted as facts, and governments either by themselves, or together with interest groups, are enticed by fears into embarking on precipitate, irrational, and irreversible acts.

“Such acts turn out, in the end, to be based on nothing but fears, sometimes generated by guilt over past injustices, such as inequitable dealing. That is the basis of tragedy, towards which nations are propelled by a partial, or wrongful reading of socio-political realities and- history. I would like to see this nation avoid such a blunder. So, I am certain, would Balarabe Musa.

“Raising the spectre of secession is a facile approach to the dangerous, self-evident lapses in governance which Balarabe himself acknowledges in his response to the Amotekun principle made flesh. The midwives of Amotekun have repeatedly acknowledged that theirs is only a contribution towards a crisis of escalating proportions. Other states should be encouraged to emulate, not misread such initiatives, then demonise them by false attributions. That is the certain recipe for tragedy.”