{"id":81648,"date":"2021-06-05T09:04:58","date_gmt":"2021-06-05T08:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=81648"},"modified":"2021-06-05T09:04:58","modified_gmt":"2021-06-05T08:04:58","slug":"buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/","title":{"rendered":"Buhari keeps mute in Benue killing,\u00a0but evokes civil war memories over South-East \u2014Soyinka"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, says President Muhammadu Buhari keeps calm whenever there are attacks in Benue State but is quick to evoke memories of the civil war whenever the South-East is involved.<\/p>\n

Soyinka said this in a statement on Friday titled, \u2018Off to Shock and Awe\u2019 while reacting to Buhari\u2019s recent statement wherein he recalled how he fought in the Biafran war of 1967-1970 and threatened to deal with \u201cpersons misbehaving\u201d in the South-East in a language they understand.<\/p>\n

The comment was widely condemned while social media giant, Twitter, deleted the post.<\/p>\n

Reacting to Buhari\u2019s statement, however, Soyinka said it was funny that Buhari never sounded tough over the killing of innocent persons in Benue but was quick to evoke memories of the civil war.<\/p>\n

He wrote, \u201cWhen, however, a head of state threatens to \u2018shock\u2019 civilian dissidents, to \u2018deal with them in the language they understand\u2019, and in a context that conveniently brackets opposition to governance with any blood thirsting enemies of state, we have to call attention to the precedent language of such a national leader under even more provocative, nation disintegrative circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a pity, and what a tragic setting, to discover that this language was accessible all the time to President Buhari, where and when it truly mattered, when it would have been not only appropriate, but deserved and mandatory!<\/p><\/div>\n

\n\u201cWhen Benue was first massively brought under siege, with the massacre of innocent citizens, the destruction of farms, mass displacement followed by alien occupation, Buhari\u2019s language \u2013 both as utterance and as what is known as \u2018body language\u2019 \u2013 was of a totally different temper. It was diffident, conciliatory, even apologetic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nobel laureate said after much internal pressure, Buhari eventually visited the scene of slaughter in Benue but rather than threaten to \u201cshock the killers\u201d the President asked them to \u201clearn to live peacefully with your neighbours\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said Buhari only later asked security agents to shoot criminals on sight after much pressure, a move which he said was belated.<\/p>\n

Soyinka argued that the world had moved on from the civil war and wondered why Buhari still spoke of it with nostalgia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evocation of the civil war, where millions of civilians perished, is an unworthy emotive ploy that has run its course. In any case \u2013 and this has been voiced all too often, and loudly \u2013 the nation is already at war, and of a far more potentially devastating dimension than it has ever known.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single occupant of this nation space called Nigeria has been declared potential casualty, children being pushed to the very battlefront, without a semblance of protective cover. We have betrayed the future. We need no breast-beating about past wars. The world has moved on, so have nations,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, says President Muhammadu Buhari keeps calm whenever there are attacks in Benue State but is quick to evoke memories of the civil war whenever the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":81649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nBuhari keeps mute in Benue killing,\u00a0but evokes civil war memories over South-East \u2014Soyinka - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Buhari keeps mute in Benue killing,\u00a0but evokes civil war memories over South-East \u2014Soyinka - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, says President Muhammadu Buhari keeps calm whenever there are attacks in Benue State but is quick to evoke memories of the civil war whenever the…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-06-05T08:04:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Prof-Wole-Soyinka1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"751\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"420\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Our Reporter\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Our Reporter\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\"},\"headline\":\"Buhari keeps mute in Benue killing,\u00a0but evokes civil war memories over South-East \u2014Soyinka\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-05T08:04:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/\"},\"wordCount\":475,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Prof-Wole-Soyinka1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/\",\"name\":\"Buhari keeps mute in Benue killing,\u00a0but evokes civil war memories over South-East \u2014Soyinka - Pointblank News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Prof-Wole-Soyinka1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-05T08:04:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Prof-Wole-Soyinka1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Prof-Wole-Soyinka1.jpg\",\"width\":751,\"height\":420},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Buhari keeps mute in Benue killing,\u00a0but evokes civil war memories over South-East \u2014Soyinka\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/\",\"name\":\"Pointblank News\",\"description\":\"Just the news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c\",\"name\":\"Our Reporter\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Our Reporter\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Buhari keeps mute in Benue killing,\u00a0but evokes civil war memories over South-East \u2014Soyinka - Pointblank News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Buhari keeps mute in Benue killing,\u00a0but evokes civil war memories over South-East \u2014Soyinka - Pointblank News","og_description":"Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, says President Muhammadu Buhari keeps calm whenever there are attacks in Benue State but is quick to evoke memories of the civil war whenever the…","og_url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/","og_site_name":"Pointblank News","article_published_time":"2021-06-05T08:04:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":751,"height":420,"url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Prof-Wole-Soyinka1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Our Reporter","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Our Reporter","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/"},"author":{"name":"Our Reporter","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c"},"headline":"Buhari keeps mute in Benue killing,\u00a0but evokes civil war memories over South-East \u2014Soyinka","datePublished":"2021-06-05T08:04:58+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/"},"wordCount":475,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Prof-Wole-Soyinka1.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/","name":"Buhari keeps mute in Benue killing,\u00a0but evokes civil war memories over South-East \u2014Soyinka - Pointblank News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Prof-Wole-Soyinka1.jpg","datePublished":"2021-06-05T08:04:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Prof-Wole-Soyinka1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Prof-Wole-Soyinka1.jpg","width":751,"height":420},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/buhari-keeps-mute-in-benue-killing-but-evokes-civil-war-memories-over-south-east-soyinka\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Buhari keeps mute in Benue killing,\u00a0but evokes civil war memories over South-East \u2014Soyinka"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/","name":"Pointblank News","description":"Just the news","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/ba61acbe7e8967bcf3f3ba603d9db23c","name":"Our Reporter","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/83b3820ef93d502ae3a617b2c881ca42?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Our Reporter"},"url":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}