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Wole Soyinka: Read Nobel laureate's 'New Year' statement

Nigeria's Wole Soyinka became the first African to be recognised with the prize, which from 1901 to 1985 went to only eight people from outside the US and EUurope

Professor Wole Soyinka has released a statement titled, “Blame passing: The New Year Gift to a Nation.’’

Professor Wole Soyinka has released a statement titled, “Blame passing: The New Year Gift to a Nation.’’

According to THE PUNCH, Soyinka also cited the clipping of the 1977 edition of the Daily Times when President Muhammadu Buhari, then a minister of petroleum and natural resources, was quoted as saying, “Fuel crisis may be over next year.”

Part of the statement reads as follows: “Pronouncements – such as the 1977 above – again re-echoing by rote in 2017– are a delusion at best, a formula that derides public intelligence. Buying time. Passing blame. Yes, of course, the current affliction must be remedied, and fast, but is there a dimension to it that must be brought to the fore, simultaneously and forcefully? This had better be the framework for solving even a shortage that virtually paralysed the nation.”

“It is however a masterful end-of-year image to take into the coming year, not only for the individual now at the helm of government, General Buhari, but for a people surely credited with the most astounding degree of patience and forbearance on the African continent – except of course among themselves, when they turn into predatory fiends."

Speaking on blame passing by the government, Soyinka said, “when many of us are blissfully departed, an updated rendition of this same clipping – with a change of cast here and there – will undoubtedly be reproduced in the media, with the same alibis, the same in-built panacea of blame passing.”

 “As the tussle for the next round of power gets hotter in the coming year, the electorate will again be manipulated into losing sight of the base issue… Sooner than later, but not as soon as pledged, the fuel crisis will pass. And then, of course, we shall await the next round of shortages, then a recommencement of blame passing.

“What will be the commodity this time – food perhaps? Maybe even potable water? In a nation of plenty, nothing is beyond eventual shortage – except, of course, the commonplace endowment of pre-emptive planning and methodical execution.” He said.

Article by Misthura Otubu

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