Prof Wole Soyinka wrote the classic literature book we used in school, “The Man Died”. Today, he is remembered in the whole world by his truthful statement and beautiful quote that the man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny. We loved him and followed his human rights advocacy in the 1970s and 1980s to free the oppressed. But we never knew that he would someday join the oppressors to oppress the rest of us.
His recent attacks on Dr. Datti Ahmed and the Obidient Movement show the opposite of the firebrand Prof Wole Soyinka we knew in those old days. Now, he has joined those who beat up a child and stop the child’s mouth from crying out.
The Obidient Movement is a genuine political movement with the aim of freeing Nigeria from corrupt and visionless leadership. It is a movement to give birth to a new Nigeria and enthrone true democracy, competent leadership, accountability in governance, fairness, equity, justice, righteousness and peace in the land. What offence have Datti Ahmed and the Obidients committed?
Indeed, we are saying the same thing that if the Supreme Court takes bribe and perverts justice in this case, Nigeria shall disintegrate because the Judiciary is the last hope of the common man.
The rule of law is that Justice must not only be done but seen to be done. When Justice is done, the eyes of ordinary people will see it and they will rejoice. This is a spiritual principle that when the righteous are in authority the people rejoice but when the wicked and evil men rule in the land, the people mourn and groan in anguish, Proverbs 29: 2.
The masses did not rejoice when INEC declared Bola Tinubu the winner. Rather, the people went home weeping and groaning.
Prof Wole Soyinka saw the atrocities committed by INEC and the ruling APC in this 2023 election. He saw the killing of the Ibos in Lagos for voting for the candidates of their choice but he kept silent. This is not our Prof Wole Soyinka. If he is the same person, it means that our Prof Wole Soyinka has died because the man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny.