Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka has scored President Muhammadu Buhari high in the administration’s fight against corruption.
Soyinka said graft in both public and private businesses was no longer the same compared with the impunity of the past administrations.
Before now, the literary giant had been an ardent critic of the Buhari administration.
For instance, he was once quoted to have said: “Nigeria is now witnessing an illusive democracy hoisted by the tyrannical regime of President Buhari. This government is worse than any military junta we have ever seen in this country. It’s high time progressive Nigerians rose up and vehemently resisted this despotic and macabre government of Buhari. The Ekiti and Osun jungle elections are a good pointer. Nigeria belongs to all of us and we must protect this country and our democracy.”
But in his new rating, Soyinka said though the president may have some shortcomings in other aspects, he must be commended in his anti-graft war.
Speaking on BBC’s hard-hitting interview programme, Hardtalk, Monday, the literary icon who described corruption as a “humongous issue”, said bankers and top politicians in the country were being jailed for corrupt practices.
“Indisputably, we have this issue of corruption. It’s a humongous issue, and I frankly despise those who try to trivialise it in Nigeria simply because you don’t like the face of the man who is behind it or he has failed in certain other respects.
“But it’s no longer business as usual in Nigeria. You have bankers who are on trial, you have legislators and former governors who are on trial the moment they are out of office; they are grabbed by anti-corruption agencies. There is a change as far as corruption is concerned. On that issue of corruption as far as I’m concerned, he (Buhari) scored a pass.”
The Nobel Laureate accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of allowing the dreaded Boko Haram sect to fester for his selfish political gains.
While admitting his generation had failed the country, he said the new generation should wrest power from old politicians whom he termed “old fogeys”, insisting Nigeria was in dire need of an idealist.
“In the last elections, there was one person who spearheaded the movement for young Nigerians to take over political power. And they could have come up with a consensus candidate, but unfortunately one of the old fogeys (apparently referring to Obasanjo) simply because he wanted to be at the head of governance, unfortunately, jumped on the bandwagon, took the reins and crashed.
“The movement was led by one lawyer and veteran activist, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN). I think he made a mistake of going to seek the blessing of one of the old fogeys (Obasanjo), who proceeded, jumped on the bandwagon, took the reins and crashed it.
“The younger (new) generation has got to be made to understand that this country is theirs, and that they simply must wipe out the deficit of former leadership. Take for instance, Boko Haram, if action
had been taken at the very beginning, (I’m not talking about the reign of former President Jonathan), when the former governor of Borno state, Ali Modu Sheriff, decided to make his state a theocratic state, that was when action ought to have been taken. The president at that time (Olusegun Obasanjo) compromised because he was ambitious and he needed the support of that governor,” Soyinka said.
