Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has \u00a0blamed \u00a0governments for allowing religious fanaticism to undermine Nigeria\u2019s broadly secular constitution, starting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo allowing some states to declare Sharia law in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n
According to him \u201cWhen the spectre of Sharia first came up, for political reasons, this was allowed to hold, instead of the president defending the Constitution.<\/p>\n
Soyinka who spoke with Reuters in Abeokuta on Wednesday said \u201cWe cannot ignore the negative impact which both have had on African society\u2026 They are imperialist forces: intervening, arrogant. Modern Africa has been distorted.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted that while the leadership of Boko Haram needed to be \u201cdecapitated completely, \u201clittle had been done to present an alternative ideological vision to their \u201cdeluded\u201d follow\u00aders, driven largely by economic destitution and despair.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0Soyinka, also contended that \u00a0Nigeria is suffering greater carnage at the hands of Boko Haram than it did during the civil war, he is optimistic Nigeria wouldn\u2019t break up.<\/p>\n
Soyinka said the horrors in\u00adflicted by the Islamist sect had shown Nigerians across the mostly Muslim North and Christian South that sticking together might be the only way to avoid even greater sectarian slaughter.<\/p>\n
According to him, \u201cthe bloodshed is now worse than during the 1967-70 Biafra war when a secessionist attempt by the Eastern Igbo people nearly tore Nigeria up into ethnic regions,\u201d add\u00ading: \u201cWe have never been confronted with butch\u00adery on this scale, even during the civil war.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Noble Literature laureate said, \u201cthere were atrocities (during Biafra), but we never had such a near predictable level of carnage and this is what is horrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the fear that the growing intensity of the insurgency could cause Nigeria\u2019s break-up, Soyinka dismissed it, saying: \u201cI think ironically, it\u2019s less likely now\u2026 For the first time, a sense of belonging is predominating. It\u2019s either we stick together now or we break up, and we know it would be not in a pleasant way.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stated that break-up would not solve the country\u2019s problem, as, according to him, \u201cthe (Boko Haram) forces that would like to see this nation break up are the very forces which will not be satisfied having their enclave\u2026 \u201c(We) are confronted with an enemy that will never be satisfied with the space it has.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has \u00a0blamed \u00a0governments for allowing religious fanaticism to undermine Nigeria\u2019s broadly secular constitution, starting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo allowing some states to declare Sharia…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n