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By Chinedu Asadu<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wole Soyinka, Nigeria\u2019s Nobel-winning author, sees his country\u2019s many problems \u2014 misgoverning politicians, systemic corruption, violent extremists, and kidnapping bandits \u2014 yet he does not despair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At 87, he says Nigeria\u2019s youth may have the energy and the know-how to get the troubled country back on track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is up to the new generation \u201cto decide whether they want to keep going along the same chugging one-track train,\u201d or chart a new course, Soyinka told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soyinka credits young Nigerians \u2014 about 64 million between 15 and 35 years of the country\u2019s more than 200 million people \u2014 for trying to fundamentally reform the country. He cites the Oct. 2020 #EndSARS protests against police brutality, comparing it to the \u201cpositive watersheds of resistance\u201d during the years of military rule Nigeria endured for nearly 30 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the protests one year ago ended in shootings and the deaths of more than 30 protesters, Soyinka says the widespread demonstrations organized on social media show the promise of the young to achieve change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe kind of energy and intelligence which created the #EndSARS movement is one, for instance, that can be used on a much broader scale to involve masses of people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his first novel in nearly 50 years, \u201cChronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth,\u201d published in September, Soyinka has created a fictional Nigeria rife with crime, corruption and chaos with an oppressive ruling party called the People on the Move Party (POMP). And the population is anything but happy, although there is an ironically-named annual Festival of the People of Happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The satirical novel depicts a trade in human body parts \u2014 by a company named Human Resources \u2014 and a pastor of a megachurch who preaches Chrislam \u2014 a mix of Christianity and Islam. Yet Soyinka\u2019s unsparing portrait of Nigeria is also mixed with a hopeful spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the Freedom Park in Lagos, Soyinka spoke to AP about his views of his country. Similar to the setting of his novel, Soyinka said he feels the current system in Nigeria is not a \u201cworking, productive\u201d one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2015, Soyinka endorsed presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari and asked Nigerians to forgive the leader of his past as a former dictator who ruled Nigeria from 1983 to 1985. Now Buhari is president and Soyinka is critical of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRight from the middle of the first round of his government, it has failed on many levels and it is up to Nigerians to wake up and reverse the direction in which they are being taken,\u201d the author said of 78-year-old Buhari\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said Buhari has a record of \u201cputting people in crates\u201d when they do not agree with him, including separatist leaders Sunday Igboho and Nnamdi Kanu, currently in the custody of Nigeria\u2019s secret police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soyinka says Nigeria started going in the wrong direction back in 1955 when the West African giant started to get \u201cunearned and undeserved wealth\u201d from oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t manufacture anything from the oil, we just used it raw for what it is, sold it, took the money and wasted the money,\u201d Soyinka, who in 1986 was the first Black author and the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cProductivity went down and the little economies which sustain a people \u2026 began to disappear,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the enormous wealth from exporting crude oil made Nigeria one of Africa\u2019s largest economies, its people continue to grapple with poverty and underdevelopment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ten years after Nigeria discovered oil in vast quantity, it suffered its first military coup in 1966, opening the floodgates for a succession of dictatorships that occupied Nigeria for nearly all years until 1999 when democracy was restored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was during one of those military regimes \u2014 in 1994 under the late Sani Abacha \u2014 that Soyinka, a thorn in the flesh of military heads of state, went into a self-imposed exile after leading pro-democracy protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has been more than 22 years since Nigeria returned to democracy but Soyinka believes the nation has \u201cnever really recovered\u201d from those dictatorial years. Moreover, he feels much of the changes he fought for are yet to materialize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve had again is reinventing the wheel,\u201d he said. \u201cEach ruler comes and says, \u2018Oh yes, I am listening to people. And they want to change. Therefore, let\u2019s meet and tinker with the constitution.\u2019 Rather than going deep inside and creating a totally different society from what is there. Once they get into power, it\u2019s the same result.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the northeast part of the country, a 12-year war against the Islamic extremists of Boko Haram and their offshoot the Islamic State West Africa Province, extremists continues to hold the region to ransom, banditry that had led to the killing of thousands and abduction of many including schoolchildren rages on in the northwest and central states while a violent separatist movement is emerging in the southeast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soyinka feels things would have been different if leaders did not \u201cpretend that what was happening was just a blip on the screen, whereas it was very deep inside the society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey refused to take action at the right time. They compromised. They appeased. They excused. They even rhetorized the danger, the reality. And in the process we lost our humanity completely,\u201d he said ruefully, his face suddenly solemn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo, each time we point a finger to the state, those in governance look at us and they see themselves as a reflection of the rest of the society. Pot calling the kettle black. (They say,) \u2018Come and chop small. We are the same.\u2019 And, of course, we move in and chop with them. That is what has happened to us as a people \u2026 Everything has lost value.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soyinka says to reverse the trend Nigeria must undergo a \u201cbrutal\u201d and \u201cmarathon\u201d soul-searching in which \u201cwe call ourselves names and tell ourselves the truth without any compromise.\u201d The country needs a leader who will \u201ctake the bull by the horns\u201d and acknowledge that \u201cso far, so bad,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soyinka is traveling internationally to promote his novel and he keeps up a constant commentary, often calling out leaders in successive governments. He, however, admits he is not as strong as thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am really tired,\u201d he said with a chuckle. \u201cI just live a normal life as I can. No special recipe or anything of the sort. Just take each day one by one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is also tired of reading his own obituaries. In Nigeria, fake news reports about Soyinka\u2019s death are rampant on social media, the most recent one in mid-October. He said he has probably read the news of his death more than he has read his own works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am getting bored with dying,\u201d he said, flinging his two hands as though he is giving up on death itself. \u201cThere is nothing creative about it. I am just bored each time I read my obituary. It\u2019s been going on for years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Originally published at Associated Press<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Chinedu Asadu Wole Soyinka, Nigeria\u2019s Nobel-winning author, sees his country\u2019s many problems \u2014 misgoverning politicians, systemic corruption, violent extremists, and kidnapping bandits \u2014 yet he does not despair. At 87, he says Nigeria\u2019s youth…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[634],"class_list":["post-5833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polity-politics-governance","tag-wole-soyinka"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n