100 persons were honoured with Centenary awards by the Federal Government as part of Nigeria’s Centenary celebration.Professor
Soyinka who was among the 100 rejected the award as the late Nigerian
tyrant, General Sani Abacha and other known killers and looters of
Nigeria’s treasury were also on the list.
In a rejection note
headlined "The Canonisation of Terror", Soyinka observed that the
inclusion of Abacha on the list does not only show a failure of a moral
rigour but it calls into question "the entire ethical landscape into
which this nation has been forced by insensate leadership".
According
to Soyinka, Abacha's regime was known for assassinations, torture and
other forms of barbarism. An elected president and his wife, M.K.O and
Kudirat Abiola were snuffed out by Abacha as well as nine Nigerian
citizens, including the writer and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa, were
hanged after a trial that was stomach churning.
"We are
speaking here 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.
"What the
government of Goodluck Jonathan has done is to scoop up a century’s
accumulated degeneracy in one pre-eminent symbol, then place it on a
podium for the nation to admire, emulate and even–worship."
"There
is a deplorable message for coming generations in this governance
aberration that the entire world has been summoned to witness and indeed
to celebrate. The insertion of an embodiment of governance of terror
into the company of committed democrats, professionals, humanists and
human rights advocates in their own right, is a sordid effort to grant a
certificate of health to a communicable disease that common sense
demands should be isolated. It is a confidence trick that speaks volumes
of the perpetrators of such a fraud," Soyinka said.
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