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"We Must Join Hands to Fight Boko Haram" – Wole Soyinka

Published

10 years ago

April 24, 2014

A Nigerian writer and Nobel laureate, Akinwande Oluwole “Wole” Soyinka, has appealed to people of Nigeria to stand together against terror and violence spread by the Boko Haram members and other insurgents.
Today at the formal inauguration of UNESCO’s 2014 World Book Capital City, in Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers State, he stressed that the terrorists’ actions are intended to create fear and terror in the
country – so called psychological war. Today Nigerians engaged in a battle for the mind as the current battlefield stretches beyond the physical territory.
He couldn’t but comment the abduction of 234 pupils of Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State, saying that the given situation reveals the crisis in ensuring security in society. He noted that Nigerians are undergoing an affliction that many could not have imagined 10 years ago. That is why there’s no time for procrastination, all the people should join hands and repel the terrorists for the sake of the children. If you don’t want to consolidate the ongoing crimes then you must confront the ultimate horror now.
The 2014 World Book Capital event was described as a powerful statement implying a silent rejection of Boko Haram’s Fatwa on Nigerians as their world vision does not apply to the nation. Nigerians must сhallenge the megalomania of members of the sect by rising against their activities and rejecting everything that they represent.
The writer asked one of the most important questions for the Muslims to answer: If Boko Haram represents the ultimate Fatwa of our time, then does the sect’s Fatwa represent the articulated position of the majority of Muslims in this nation?
The Chairman of the event called ‘Republic Of The Mind And Thraldom Of Fear’ and former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, Retd, also appealed to Nigerians, saying that only together
we сan bring peace in the country. If there is no peace, there will be no chance to read books and there will be no country. Prof. Soyinka also referred to the President asking not to re-impose tax on books,
noting that if books in Nigeria were freely available that would be great.