SOYINKA: BEATING THE DRUMS OF INTOLERANCE AND SECTARIAN REGIMENTATION
Wole Soyinka’s mischief-laden diatribe against the Buhari candidacy should be exposed for what it is, namely, a rabidly intolerant intrusion in our public discourse that is reactionary to the extreme. Couched in the language of atavistic proselytization, the outburst by the Nobel laureate will no doubt be music to the ears of those who have since 1999 sought refuge in the divisive politics of the current tyrant at Aso Rock - the ‘born-again’ Olusegun Obasanjo, a debilitating symbol of disunity and sectarian regimentation.
One is rudely confronted with Soyinka’s intolerance when he implies that the millions of Buhari supporters across the nation are not thinking as rational beings and wonders why they should not be subjected to psychiatric evaluation. Now, by assuming an omniscient, know-all posture that is intolerant of dissenting opinion – after all Soyinka’s view on the Buhari candidacy for the 2007 presidential election is only but a view amongst millions out there – the author of Kongi’s Harvest is exhibiting the very excesses he rightly says African dictators are guilty of. And related to the writer’s intolerance are his impudence and arrogance – two traits he claims Buhari is guilty of – as demonstrated in his attitude to Buhari supporters and the reasons for their support. Soyinka has refused to appreciate the tangible factors that have informed the critical mass of following the Buhari candidacy seems to be enjoying not just amongst the grass roots but also amongst the elites.
Surely, during his short-lived regime in the mid-1980s and outside the framework of that era, Buhari must have done something that the people can identify with to the extent that they continue to see in him a rare leader and true patriot who has come to symbolize today, more than any of the other candidates, the legitimate aspirations of the average Nigerian yearning for stability, law and order, respect for the Constitution, a decent living, etc. A leader whose endorsement cuts across ethnic, sectional as well as religious allegiances in a rainbow coalition of citizens fed up with the PDP-induced state of near-anarchy and anomie crippling the land should be the object of commendation and not that of a mean-spirited, legerdemain-like admonition by Soyinka and his ilk.
Anybody gifted with the ability to talk or write can tell stories, especially of the linear type. But commenting on events marking the history of a people does require the essential ingredients of context and balance – two elements that are sadly lacking in Soyinka’s shoddy, lopsided outburst. It is apparent that Soyinka’s account is burdened by partisan considerations. The Buhari legacy is presented in a slanted, monotonous and deeply obnoxious pitch that studiously avoids any meaningful assessment of the Buhari years in government, preferring instead to indulge in a tunnel-visioned excavation of our recent history. Worse still, The Nobel laureate has succumbed to the lowest common denominator in his haste to paint Buhari as something akin to the devil incarnate. In a desperate and futile attempt to present Buhari as a religious cum ethnic jingoist – the same scurrilous tactic Obasanjo’s PDP resorted to in the campaign for the 2003 elections that ended in a fiasco - Soyinka has conveniently chosen not to mention that some of Buhari’s staunchest opponents during his regime were from the predominantly Muslim North, Buhari’s region of origin. The picture that comes across therefore is one of a caricature of Buhari the man. Yet, as will soon be evident, by electing to pander to base, primordial loyalties of sectarian claustrophobia and suggestion, Soyinka has not only shot himself in the foot, he has also unmasked a side of him that is both sinister and parochial, namely, his history of worrisome double standards and bigotry.
Many a Nigerian will find it curious, to say the least, that barely three months to the 2007 presidential election, Soyinka is desperately and pathetically trying to resuscitate the offensive PDP propaganda that was peddled in 2003 against the Buhari-Okadigbo ticket by the regime of Obasanjo whose sordid track record since 1999 had made sure that the outfit and its leaders were going to lose the elections that year. Back then, the spin was that Buhari was a religious fanatic that could not be trusted. Soyinka’s resort to what is tantamount to an indolent rehash of this balderdash regarding Buhari’s supposed religious fanaticism coupled with the silly innuendo on his part about the general’s alleged ethnic bias must be seen as both sinister and retrogressive. Also sinister is the timing. Now, as in 2003, Obasanjo’s PDP is in serious danger of losing the presidential election, thanks to the current regime’s track record of sleaze and anti-people practices. In 2003, Soyinka threw his support behind the Obasanjo candidacy irrespective of the fact that the dictator has perhaps the worst human rights record amongst Nigeria’s rulers since independence as exemplified by his regime’s atrocities in Odi, Zaki-Biam and surrounding villages. Soon after the ‘419’ election of that year, a Thisday reporter wanted to know from Soyinka why he had chosen to keep quiet in the face of the excesses of the Obasanjo regime. Invoking old age and fatigue, Soyinka avoided the issue altogether and instead launched a blistering attack on Buhari. The sins of the latter: His guts and determination to contest the legitimacy of the Obasanjo regime in the light of the 2003 electoral heist in particular. The same Soyinka whose double standards and lack of generosity seem to inform his pathological aversion for Buhari had, until recently, conveniently chosen to look the other way regarding the atrocities and shortcomings of Obasanjo and his dictatorship. And with the PDP more than ever before in danger of being defeated in the forthcoming elections, Kongi has apparently decided to leave nothing to chance. Whether deliberate or unconscious, Soyinka’s unfortunate and needless intervention will have the consequence of tending to appeal to the more reactionary elements that are comfortable with the status quo as represented by Obasanjo’s PDP and its rigging machine. There are those who believe that Soyinka’s un-nuanced attack against Buhari may also be intended as a favor to an old friend – Obasanjo - who has spent the last three and a half years toying with every crude scheme imaginable that would ensure his political survival beyond May 29, 2007. Observers point out that Soyinka’s belated opposition to the reckless antics of the PDP and its owners is to a large extent steeped in histrionics.
Over the years, Wole Soyinka has played controversial roles in the politics of our country. Recent examples include his endorsement of the Babangida regime and the current Obasanjo tyranny, respectively. Soyinka it was who played a key role in the legitimization of Babangida and his dictatorship. When it was obvious to any educated person that Babangida was up to no good, the author of The Man Died made it a point of telling the world that the former tyrant from Minna was what he referred to as a“ listening president”! What these contradictions do is reveal an individual whose political judgment at critical moments of our history has been at best questionable.
Elsewhere, other commentators have had cause to question Soyinka’s threshold of tolerance regarding not just dissenting opinion but also those that do not belong to his cultural frame of reference. Recently, the Kenyan writer and teacher, Professor Ali Mazrui did accuse Soyinka of harboring prejudice against people of other cultures. In his letter to Soyinka entitled Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Soyinka: The Strange Case of Nobel Schizophrenia, Mazrui denounces Soyinka for his insinuation that because he (Mazrui) is not Nigerian, he lacks the credibility to comment on Nigeria-related matters. “You shrink from loving those who are culturally dissimilar. No wonder you are alienated from Northern Nigerians”, Mazrui told Soyinka. Soyinka and those who think like him should know that a great majority of Nigerians want to move away from the hangover of the immediate post-independence era politics of grid-lock occasioned by the antics of local tin gods who fanned the embers of sectarian hatred and animosity. Like the late Abiola whose political support did cut across the North-South divide, Buhari is seen by citizens across the country as an embodiment of their hopes and dreams. That Soyinka has failed to understand this fact is most unfortunate indeed.
In his anti-Buhari admonition, Soyinka is laying claim to the moral high ground whether or not his cheerleaders understand it so. Moreover, Soyinka cannot be engaging in a wholesale condemnation of a public figure (of Buhari's stature) and expect that his own (Soyinka's) track record or integrity will not come under scrutiny. Those who would rather bury their heads in the sand and issue empty statements about the need to focus on the message (by ignoring the messenger) do miss the point. The moment Soyinka and any other person for that matter invites the public to lend him their ears, it is taken for granted that the witness (to history) - in this case Soyinka - cannot be dissociated from his testimony. The credibility or otherwise of the witness is critical to whether or not his testimony will be deemed acceptable. To cut a long story short, let's just say that there are abundant textual and inter-textual indices to indict Soyinka as far as his rabid anti-Buhari pontification is concerned.
One is gladdened by the fact that decent Nigerians are rising to denounce Soyinka’s intemperate attack on Buhari and his presidential ambition.
We should listen to the voice of reason by Professor Tam David-West as reported in the Nigerian press. “I don’t owe Buhari anything, but I owe Nigerians the truth and I am not talking about Buhari from a distance but as an insider. Wole Soyinka is my very good friend and I respect him a lot. I put him at very high pedestal, but I am taking a stand at some of his verbal excesses. You have a right to your position against anybody but let us not take the aura of our position to disinform the public or give them a slanted position of our view…It was wrong to inform the public with a mindset with stereotypes and bias…General Buhari is the most disciplined leader Nigeria has ever produced”.
Aonduna Tondu
New York
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