rejected the centenary award to be conferred on him by the
Federal Government because the late military dictator,
General Sani Abacha, was included in the long list of awardees. In a statement entitled, 'The canonisation of terror,'
Soyinka said it is an insult for him to be listed alongside the
likes of Abacha for the award.
On why he can't share anything with the likes of Abacha, Prof
Soyinka said:
"Under that ruler, torture and other forms of barbarism were
enthroned as the norm of governance. Nine Nigerian citizens,
including the writer and environmentalist, Ken Saro-wiwa,
were hanged after a trial that was stomach-churning even by
the most primitive standards of judicial trial, and in defiance
of the intervention of world leadership.
"We are speaking of a man who placed this nation under siege
during an unrelenting reign of terror that is barely different
from the current rampage of Boko Haram. It is this very
psychopath that was recently canonised by the government of
Goodluck Jonathan in commemoration of one hundred years
of Nigerian trauma."
Soyinka wondered why the Federal Government had not
changed the names of roads, hospitals and any other public
facility that were named after Abacha.
He added that by honouring Abacha, President Goodluck
Jonathan's administration had ridiculed Nigeria in the
presence of world leaders by glorifying "murderers and
thieves."
"What the government of Goodluck Jonathan has done is to
scoop up a century's accumulated degeneracy in one
preeminent symbol, then place it on a podium for the nation to
admire, emulate and even – worship."
"...I reject my share of this national insult," the respected
literary giant concluded.
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