Soyinka asks Buhari to reveal health status, backs IPOB, others

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has called on Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, 74, to reveal the condition of his health after spending nearly two months in Britain on medical leave.

Soyinka, who spoke in an interview with AFP at Paris Book Fair weekend, also said indigenous people had a right to assert themselves as a distinct people, even within a political and geographical zone anywhere in the world.

“He’s ill, there’s no question, and I wish for heaven’s sake that people in public positions would just be honest. “Illness is part of our existence. Buhari owes it to the nation and I don’t know why he and his advisors are being so coy about it,” Soyinka said. Soyinka, who also noted that US President, Donald Trump, exploited “latent xenophobia” to reach the White House, said a people had a right to agitate for self-autonomy within a geographical expression.

He was obviously reacting to the agitation for declaration of independent state of Biafra in the South East of Nigeria.

He said: “It’s not the real estate for me that defines a nation or a people, no, it’s a history, a culture. What is a crime  within an artificial entity like Nigeria?  You have states being created which are not viable.” Biafra unsuccessfully fought for independence in a brutal three-year civil war — during which Soyinka was imprisoned for nearly two years over allegations of espionage.

-Vanguard