Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, has just sent PREMIUM TIMES the
statement below endorsing a former Deputy Governor of the Central
Bank of Nigeria, Kingsley Moghalu, for the February 16 presidential
election.
Mr Moghalu, a lawyer and university professor, is running on the
platform of the Young Progressive Party, YPP.
Mr Soyinka, a professor, had a few days ago called on Nigerians
not to vote for President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives
Congress (APC), as well as his main challenger, Atiku Abubakar of
the Peoples Democratic Party.
He said both parties and their candidates have failed Nigeria
and have nothing new to offer the country.
The Nobel Laureate is one of Nigeria’s most popular and
respected figures. How he will use his public profile to woo votes
for Mr Moghalu in next week’s election however remains to been
seen.
Read Mr Soyinka’s full statement endorsing the YPP candidate
below.
NEW DIRECTIONS IN A TIME OF DECISION
The nation has been brought to her knees. Internally, the
blaring media testimony needs no augmentation. Beyond her borders,
Nigeria is the tale of citizens designated pariahs of the global
community for whom special dossiers are opened, and units of
security agencies are specifically assigned.
Online transactions are programmed to reject basic usage once
the word ‘Nigeria’ is inserted in the Data profile. There are few
nation left, within or outside the continental borders where – no
matter the codeword – a Nigerian ‘room’ has not been
designated.
Her humanity litters the sand trails of the Sahara, it lines the
Mediterranean sea-bed with the bones of a desperate generation,
seeking ‘green pastures’. Lines from my poems have been
appropriated and embossed as epitaphs on the tombstones of
Nigerians washed up the isle of Catania and accorded dignified
burials by total strangers, certainly paid more respect than
Nigerians themselves consider due to their own humanity.
Other would-be migrants have been slaughtered by religious
fundamentalists on the shores of Tripoli, while waiting for their
precarious crossing on suicidal boats. Yet others end up as
commodities in the slave markets of Libya and Mauritania, hundreds
recently rescued and airlifted – credit where credit is due! –
repatriated by government.
It was not always thus. Numerous Nigerians believe that it need
not remain so. There is always a choice to be made outside any
presumptuous orders – in reality associations guaranteed to
perpetuate social disorders and the politics of inequality. This is
not the thinking of any one individual but of a large section of
this populace. If it were not, there would not have been a record
number of nearly a hundred political groups aspiring to take over
the reins of governance.
We do not need any instruction however to estimate that several
of the aspiring groups are mere plants, raised to sow confusion. It
redounds to the credit of a few individuals, including some of the
candidates themselves, who embarked on efforts to winnow down their
own ranks, then seek a consensus candidate as standard bearer for
the battle against the two political behemoths.
They did not succeed, but that is no cause for despair. They
still deserve the gratitude of Nigerians for their uniquely
principled efforts. The CITIZEN FORUM – last heard of during the
time of the dictator, Sani Abacha – was pulled out of retirement to
join in their effort to arrive at peer consensus. The Forum worked
peripherally with them. It made no attempt – I stress this – no
attempt whatsoever to impose its own preferences, but utilized
material from the deliberations of at least four such selection
groups. It remained on the fringe, except on invitation. Our
mission today is simply to present the result of that effort by
Citizen Forum which, I am especially gratified to reveal, coincides
with my own personal preference. The CF conclusion is obviously not
binding on other groups or individuals involved in the exercise.
May I take this opportunity to advise the public that neither
Citizen Forum nor myself, belongs to any Third Force or other
Consensus seeking councils by any other name. Please ignore any
such attributions.
Over the past few months, we studied the careers, experiences
and track records of most of the presidential aspirants, and most
intensely those actually short-listed by the opposition parties
themselves. Like millions of Nigerians, we watched the debates. I
physically interacted with some of the acknowledged top contenders,
in some cases several times. We participated in HANDSHAKE ACROSS
NIGERIA, where some candidates presented their briefs. Among
others, I delivered a keynote address. We watched television
interviews. We have exchanged notes with highly respected
international Civil Servants. The drive towards Consensus among
these dedicated groups sometimes took the form of test
questionnaires to the aspirants, including items such as: ‘Who
among the contestants would you choose, if you did not emerge as
the ultimate preference?’
There was nothing complicated about assessment parameters:
mental preparedness, analytical aptitude, response to the nation’s
security challenges, economic grounding, grasp of socio-political
actualities, including a remedial concern with the Nigerian image
in foreign perception etc. etc. not forgetting a convincing
commitment to governance and resource decentralization – commonly
referred to as Restructuring. The Forum rejected retrograde
propositions of a political merry-go-round, which urge the
electorate to choose this or that candidate in order to ensure “our
turn” at the next power incumbency. Overall, the exercise was
exacting but also – therapeutic. It proved yet again that there is
over-abundant leadership quality locked up in the nation, and that
it is a collective shortcoming that the political space has not
been sufficiently opened up to let soar such potential. Well, to
cite the Chinese proverb: a journey of a thousand miles begins with
the first step.
Let me reiterate: there is over-abundant, but stifled leadership
material, and there can be no excuse, now that that potential of
high quality is being manifested, for constricting the political
space in a population that is nudging two hundred million. And that
statement is of course specially addressed to those who took part
in this exercise, those who deliberated opted out of it, some of
whom were assessed anyway. Such potential compelled us to exercise
utmost rigour in what proved to be a most daunting exercise. The
final determination however is – the flag-bearer of the Young
Progressive Party – KINGSLEY MOGHALU.
I shall conclude with a somewhat interesting aside. I met
Moghalu again on Monday morning, February 4th, and informed him of
the Forum’s decision. During our discussion, I happened to ask him
– what is the meaning of Moghalu. I was curious, because it had
taken quite some time along the way for me to know to which ethnic
group the name belonged. He replied, it means – “Evil Spirit, Leave
me Be!” Then I asked him for his other names and he spelt them out:
“Actually my full names are Kingsley Chiedu Ayodele Moghalu”.
Eyebrows raised, I asked, How come, Ayodele? A piquant revelation
resulted: “Oh, that came from Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. She was
friends with my father. Mrs. Kuti was my godmother, and she gave me
the name Ayodele”.
I was learning this for the first time. Moghalu’s CV is however
in the public domain – his publications, record, and vision. The
above is just a side-note that contains its own mild, thought
provoking instruction, for those who care to examine the
distractions of ethnic equivocations, and the rigid mind-sets and
stereotypes imposed on products of circumstance.
That immediate task being now completed, Citizen Forum will now
join forces with those who pray, “Evil Spirit, leave us be!” – at
least those who subscribe to the belief that political elections
are not a Do-or-Die Affair!
Wole SOYINKA