Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, the first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet
Back in 2022/2023, when Nigeria was at the crossroads of political transition, Prof. Wole Soyinka, the revered Nobel Laureate, found his voice loud and clear. The legendary writer, known for his deep critiques of governance and society, became an overnight electoral moralist, wagging his intellectual finger at the Obidients, the supporters of Peter Obi, for their so-called hostility and intolerance.
It was fascinating. Here was a man who had, for decades, been a fierce critic of the ruling class, suddenly more concerned about the tone of the oppressed than the tyranny of the oppressors. He wasn’t particularly troubled by the electoral malpractice, the brazen state capture, or the calamitous governance of Nigeria’s ruling elite. No, his deepest anxiety was the unfiltered passion of young Nigerians demanding a break from the status quo.
Soyinka, with the elegance of a literary oracle, looked at Peter Obi’s candidacy and dismissed it with professorial disdain, citing the Obidients’ supposed rudeness as proof of their unworthiness. In his infinite wisdom, he declared that a movement passionate about ending corruption, incompetence, and political servitude was too uncouth to deserve his blessing.
But that was then.
Fast forward to 2024, and the man who once held the sword against political excesses has suddenly retired his weapons. His words, once sharp as a blade, are now softer than overcooked eba. The Tinubu administration, which he subtly endorsed by his strategic vilification of the opposition, has embarked on a grand carnival of impunity, yet the once-thunderous Soyinka now tiptoes around reality like a poet afraid of breaking the rhythm of a poorly written stanza.
The Deafening Silence of the Great Orator
Where is Soyinka today? Where is that booming voice that once roared against injustice?
• Fuel subsidy removal without safety nets, pushing millions into poverty? Silence!
• Naira’s catastrophic free fall, making life unbearable for ordinary Nigerians? Silence!
• A government that taxes citizens to death while offering them nothing but suffering? Silence!
• A Rivers State crisis fueled by political arrogance and federal overreach? Silence!
• Extrajudicial detentions, human rights violations, and a judiciary that has become an errand boy of the executive? Silence!
The great Wole Soyinka, who once declared that “the man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny,” has chosen the comfort of his literary archives over the duty of a conscience-driven intellectual.
One must wonder: Has his pen run dry? Or did the same people who taught him to speak impeccable English also teach him the fine art of strategic muteness when tyranny wears familiar colors?
The Selective Outrage of Nigeria’s Intellectual Class
Nigeria has a peculiar breed of intellectuals – those who speak with unmatched eloquence when their political enemies are in power but suddenly develop amnesia when their own anointed candidates become emperors.
Wole Soyinka is not alone in this club. He joins the ranks of Nigeria’s bourgeois activists who masquerade as patriots only when it suits them. These are men who once wore the badge of dissent proudly but now whisper their grievances in well-guarded wine lounges instead of addressing the nation with the conviction they once wielded.
If Peter Obi had somehow managed to defy INEC’s grand rigging scheme and found himself in Aso Rock, would Soyinka still be silent? Would his literary musings not have transformed into daily lectures on the perils of authoritarianism? Would he not have written a three-act play on the “Obidient Dictatorship”?
The answer is obvious.
What Changed, Professor?
Is it possible that Soyinka, after years of wielding his pen as a weapon, has suddenly become weary of battle? Or has he merely realized that the dictator he once feared was never the real enemy – only the one who happened to oppose his preferred political order?
One cannot help but marvel at this unexpected twist of fate – a man who once stood against tyranny, now standing aside as tyranny flourishes. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him dining, wining, and bantering with President Bola Tinubu in blatant arrogance, even as the majority of Nigerians vehemently condemn his litany of failures and dictatorial maneuvers.
In any case, history will not forget. Nigerians will not forget.
And when the time comes to write the story of this era, let it be noted that Wole Soyinka’s pen went dry when his conscience should have bled ink.
Other pens, dignified by integrity, will not mince words in telling the tragic story of a once-revered Nobel Laureate who lost his glory to ethnic chauvinism.
