Child hostage taking: Soyinka blasts Buhari, says your government has failed

Outraged by the latest abduction of hundreds of school girls in Zamfara State, Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on Saturday concluded that President Muhammadu Buhari administration has failed Nigeria and Nigerians.

“It is important for all to know that these were abnormal times, but that it seemed to him as times of shirking of responsibilities in key areas.

“We cannot permit ourselves to accept the child hostage taking as a way of life, we just cannot continue in this fashion, something drastic and meaningful has to take place and it has to be collective.

“They have failed us, there is no point trying to reason it up, trying to give an excuse, putting blame or whatever. The important thing is that we are very close to accepting a culture of the unacceptable,” he said.

Soyinka spoke in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, at the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Ogun award lecture and public presentation of ‘Chronicles of the happiest people on earth,’ the latest book authored by him.

He pointed out that security was no longer the responsibility of those at the top, in charge of security, in charge of governance as they had clearly failed the populace.

The Nobel laureate said it had reached a point that states where children are kidnapped should be shut down to sound the warning that child hostage taking would no longer be acceptable.

“It might sound extreme, we don’t know what else one can propose at this particular time, yes life must go on but even those activities will generate and enhance our very existence.

“I think we have to take on a tonality of regrets, of the unacceptable, protestation and mobilization on whatever level it is possible as a community of human beings,” Soyinka said.