Soyinka- The Village Mourners. A Must-read !

Nigerians who are old enough will surely recall the source of the above title. For others, I ought to narrate its origin. Fortunately, early this year, I delivered a lecture at the University of Ibadan, where I made a passing reference to the true owners of that copyright. Here is the relevant section:

“At the passing of a short-lived dictator, his successor decreed two weeks of mourning, two weeks during which the nation went into a coma. Even the television and radio stations closed down – nothing but martial and funereal music was played, while churches and mosques took over the abandoned air-waves to drown the nation in suras and canticles of lachrymose outpouring. A very sharp group quickly formed something that was called the National Mourners Association – clever lot! While the nation was quarantined and bogged down in the Fun of lamentation, they were touring the world, sponsored by government, to take the gospel of anguish to every corner of the world that boasted a Nigerian diplomatic mission.”

Video: Soyinka - June 12 Is Democracy Day, May 29 Is Fake

Nobel Laurent, Professor Wole Soyinka, has affirmed that June 12 and not May 29 should be marked as Nigeria’s democracy day.

Speaking at a forum in Lagos over the weekend, Prof Soyinka described the May 29 celebration by federal government as ‘fake’, saying that “June 12 is the real democracy day.”

He also made jest of his ‘grounded plane and helicopter’ ahead of a planned flight to celebrate June 12 abroad.

Nigeria has celebrated the return of civil rule on 29th of May, since 1999 when the newly elected President Olusegun Obasanjo, was sworn in after over 30 years of military rule. The day was tagged, Democracy Day.

June 12 is the date renowned for Nigeria’s most credible, free and fair election in 1993 when late MKO Abiola was elected President.

http://www.channelstv.com/home/2013/06/10/june-12-is-democracy-day-may-29-is-fake-soyinka/

Feature: Prof. Wole Soyinka On Buhari.

This promises to be a very long read, but it sure is worth the time taken to go through it.

WOLE SOYINKA ON BUHARI_________ _______________

This intervention has been provoked, not so
much by the ambitions of General Muhammadu Buhari to return
to power at the head of a democratic Nigeria, as by declarations
of support from directions that leave one totally dumbfounded. It
would appear that some, myself among them, had been
overcomplacent about the magnitude of an ambition that seemed
as preposterous as the late effort of General Ibrahim Babangida
to aspire yet again to the honour of presiding over a society that
truly seeks a democratic future.

What one had dismissed was a rash of illusions, brought about
by other political improbabilities that surround us, however, is
being given an air of plausibility by individuals and groupings to
which one had earlier attributed a sense of relevance of historic
actualities. Recently, I published an article in the media,
invoking the possible recourse to psychiatric explanation for
some of the incongruities in conduct within national leadership.
Now, to tell the truth, I have begun to seriously address the issue
of which section of society requires the services of a
psychiatrist.