Nobel Laureate and author, Wole Soyinka has stated that the President needs to address the country as soon as possible to quell the rising tension occasioned by the shootings at Lekki yesterday.
In a statement, the poet stated that the President must drop every form or inclination of dictatorship and push for dialogue and negotiations.
Soyinka also stated that it was disheartening to watch with reckless abandon as lives were cut shot and ended from bullets fired by the Nigerian Army.
The statement reads in part, “At that earlier mention Lagos sector, Lekki, where most of the affirmative action gatherings had taken place, soldiers opened fire on unarmed demonstrators, killing and wounding a yet undetermined number. One such extra-judicial killing has drenched the Nigerian flag in the blood of innocents – and not symbolically.
“The video has, in accustomed parlance, ‘gone viral’. I have spoken by phone to eye-witnesses. One, a noted public figure has shared his first hand testimony on television. The government should cease to insult this nation with petulant denials.
“Need I add that, on arrival in Abeokuta, my home town, I again had to negotiate a road block? That went smoothly enough. I expected it, and have no doubt that more are being erected as this is being written.
“It is pathetic and unimaginative to claim, as some have done, that the continued protest is hurting the nation’s economy etc. etc. COVID-19 has battered the Nigerian economy – such as it is – for over eight months. Of course it is not easy to bring down COVID under a hail of bullets – human lives are easier target, and there are even trophies to flaunt as evidence of victory – such as the blood-soaked Nigerian flag that one of the victims was waving at the time of his murder.
“To the affected governors all over the nation, there is one immediate step to take: demand the withdrawal of those soldiers. Convoke Town Hall meetings as a matter of urgency. 24-hr Curfews are not the solution. Take over the security of your people with whatever resources you can rummage.
“Then both governance and its security arms can commence a meaningful, lamentably overdue dialogue with society. Do not attempt to dictate -Dialogue,” Soyinka wrote.
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