Soyinka says Tinubu’s speech fails to address police brutality against #EndBadGovernance protesters

Nobel laureate and renowned playwright Prof. Wole Soyinka has taken aim at President Bola Tinubu’s national broadcast on Sunday for failing to address what he described as a violent crackdown on #EndBadGovernance protesters by security forces.

Soyinka, who made the observations in a statement on Sunday, expressed concern over Tinubu’s deliberate omission of police brutality, which he said should have been addressed by the President.

“I set my alarm this morning to make sure I didn’t miss President Bola Tinubu’s much-awaited address to the nation on the ongoing unrest across the country,” Soyinka said.

“The government’s early remedial measures aimed at preventing such an outbreak will undoubtedly receive expert and ongoing attention both in terms of effectiveness and content analysis.

“My main concern, as expected, is the continued deterioration of the state’s management of the protests, an area that was clearly lacking in the president’s speech.

“Unfortunately, such disregard for civil rights has only armed the security forces to carry out their acts of impunity and trapped the nation in a seemingly unbreakable cycle of hatred and vengeance.

“Live ammunition as a state response to citizen protests – that’s the crux of the matter. Even tear gas is questionable in many situations, certainly its misuse in what is clearly a peaceful protest situation. The hunger marches are a universal SOS, not specific to the Nigerian state. They are in a class of their own, regardless of the additional demands on the posters.

“They serve as a wake-up call to the administration that a tipping point has been reached and thus, serve as a test case for the administration’s sense of public desperation. The tragic response to the ongoing hunger marches in parts of the country, and for which warnings have been given, is a setback that takes the country further back than the height of the deadly ENDSARS protests.

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“This brings to mind the pre-independence – that is, colonial – humiliations that prompted Hubert Ogunde’s pioneering folk opera BREAD AND BULLETS, which led to nationwide persecution and exclusion by the colonial government.

“State security agencies cannot pretend to be unaware of alternative models to emulate, civilized advances in security intervention.

“Should we recall the 2022/23 national edition of what is commonly known as the YELLOW VEST movement in France? Perhaps it is time to make such scenarios mandatory viewing in the police curriculum.

“From all the coverage I have watched, I have not seen a single instance of a weapon being pointed at protesters, let alone fired at them even in direct physical confrontation.

“The delivery of bullets when bread was demanded was an unpleasant setback, and we know what it ultimately proved to be – a prelude to far more desperate upheavals, not to mention revolution.

“It is time to abandon, indeed, permanently, the old-fashioned use of lethal means by government security agencies. No country is so backward, materially impoverished, or simply internally insecure that it has no desire to set an example.

“All that is needed is to remember one’s own history, and then muster the will to begin a lasting transformation, which includes breaking the chain of deadly responses to civil society.

“Today’s protesters might want to consider adopting the keynotes of Hubert Ogunde’s BREAD AND BULLETS, if only to instill a sense of shame at the continuing failure to transcend the fascination of the colonial legacy of which we are all on the receiving end. By whatever means necessary, this vicious cycle must be broken.”

Soyinka says Tinubu’s speech fails to address police brutality against #EndBadGovernance protesters first appeared on Latest Nigeria News | Headlines from Ripples Nigeria.