Prof. Wole Soyinka’s Likening Of President Jonathan To Nebuchadnezzar Leads To War Of Words With Nigerian Presidency.

Nobel laureate and prostate cancer
survivor, Prof. Wole Soyinka, in a
recent press conference has likened
President Jonathan to the Babylonian
emperor, King Nebuchadnezzar and he
referred to his administration a ‘reign
of impunity’. Read what he said:
“I shall not insist that the biblical
figure of Nebuchadnezzar is uniquely
apt for the pivotal figure of the
‘democratic’ history in the making at
this moment.
For one thing, Nebu was a nation
builder and a warrior. One could argue
even more convincingly for the figure
of Balthazar, his successor, or indeed
Emperor Nero as reference point –
you all remember him – the emperor
who took to fiddling while Rome was
burning.
However you should easily recall why
I opted for King Nebu – the figure that
currently sits on the top of our
political pile himself evoked it, albeit
in a context that virtuously disclaimed
any similarities, even tendencies.
Perhaps he meant it at the time when
he claimed: ‘I am no
Nebuchadnezzar.’ Perhaps not. One
judges leaders on acts however, not
pronouncements, which are often as
reliable as electoral promises….
We, the citizens, are beginning to feel
the heat. We wake up each morning to
a sensation that we have been cast
into the furnace together with those
who at least committed the crime of
dissent or criticism…
The praetorian guards have been let
loose – to teach the rabble their
place…
The recent choice of a new leader for
the guard was clearly no accident, and
this hitherto unknown enforcer, one
Suleiman Abba, has wasted no time in
inaugurating a season of brutish
power. When a people’s elected
emissaries are disenfranchised, cast
out like vagrants and resort to scaling
fences to engage in their designated
functions, the people get the message.
However, the choice is always there,
and each choice comes at a cost. It is
either we pay now, or pay later…
Peaking at his own personalised
example where he set the law of
arithmetic on its head – I refer to the
split in the Governors’ Forum, and his
‘formal’ recognition of the minority
will in a straightforward, peer election
– democracy has been rendered
meaningless where it should be most
fervently exemplified.
Nothing is more unworthy of
leadership than to degrade a system
by which one attains fulfillment, and
this is what the nation has witnessed
time and time again in various parts of
the nation, the recent affront against
the legislative chamber being only the
most blatant and unconscionable…
It is a warning. His choices for the
occupancy of crucial public positions
– such as the protective arm of the
nation – constitutes an even more
immediate and constant public alert.
The signals are ominous – for and
beyond 2015…”
Special Assistant to President
Jonathan on Public Affairs, Doyin
Okupe, reacted to Soyinka’s statement
and defended the presidency stating
that his alliance with the opposition
party had stopped him from seeing
things objectively, he said:
“It is quite saddening to note that Prof
Wole had become so close to the
opposition party so much that he has
stopped giving appreciable and
unbiased contribution to national
topics. Our eminent professor also
sadly plays the ostrich as he failed to
reprimand Governor Amaechi, who is
the ‘national champion of impunity and
official recklessness’. The
administration of President Goodluck
Jonathan prides itself as the most
liberal, keeping faith with adherence to
rule of law and tolerance.”