State of the nation: Soyinka says Nigeria is finished, blasts Buhari

Professor Wole Soyinka on Tuesday blasts President Muhammadu Buhari for leaving the nation woes, saying Nigeria is finished.

The Nobel Laureate condemned Buhari for granting presidential pardon to those who were serving prison term for corruption, stating that Buhari had placed all his eggs in one basket, which had “squashed against Nigerian faces that they shall not forget – or wipe off – in a hurry.”

In a statement titled: “A putrid presidential Easter egg,”, Soyinka supported ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo who said, Buhari has offered his best of presidency.

Damning Buhari’s release of corrupt elements from prison in the guise of presidential pardon, Soyinka insisted that Buhari has placed all his eggs in one basket, labeled anti-corruption, ‘this is one egg squashed against Nigerian faces that they shall not forget – or wipe off – in a hurry.

“It evokes the legend of Pandora’s box, whose contents are alleged to constitute all the ills that plague the world. Putrid to the core, allied to power provocations in numerous variations, such as catapulting a notorious player in the martyrdom of a serving minister of justice” to the hub of governance’s wheel, these define the nature of bequests that have brought the nation to this moment of near dissolution.

“Precedents are no consolation, no excuses. One states the obvious in remarking that precedents either undermine or reinforce principles, and aspiring offenders, especially in the political domain, are encouraged or inhibited by the ease or difficulty of access to the fount of mercy.”

“Officeholders, we presume, are constrained by the existence of that dangling Sword of Damocles – simply knowing that one day, the cloak of immunity will turn threadbare, and the awaited day of reckoning finds them answerable. Clearly, not any longer.

“You will forgive, though disagree with me, I know, for clambering onto the Easter wagon myself, to echo the words of the one whose passage through the world the Easter season commemorates: It is finished!”