Double Standard: FG Must Apologise To Sunday Igboho, Nnamdi Kanu Was Kidnapped, We Need New Constitution in Nigeria

Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has reacted to the invasion of Sunday Igboho’s house by the DSS saying that the Federal Government should apologise to Igboho. He also added Nnamdi Kanu was kidnapped by the federal government - his arrest was wrong. There would be an uproar in the country if the truth of how Kanu was arrested becomes known.

Soyinka said this in a recent interview with the BBC. He was asked in the interview aired on Monday, to react to the invasion of Sunday Igboho’s house in Ibadan last Thursday.

Soyinka described the actions of Sunday Igboho, whose real name is Sunday Adeyemo, for which he has been declared wanted by the DSS, as noncriminal.

“How can you place the will or wish for separation as a criminal act? That kind of language does not exist in the constitution, doesn’t exist in law. It should not exist in the catalogue of moralities because it is not an immoral act or position to say that you want to stop belonging to an entity or if you want to join another entity. 

"People take a very simplistic approach to so-called secession – sometimes it means I want to leave this group and join another group.

“Why do I have this position? Look at the raid – this very bizarre raid, midnight raid on a law-abiding citizen which the government now says netted a number of illegal weapons AK-47s, ammunition. We are now in a situation where of course Igboho is saying that these weapons were not there. They were planted. Now that’s one aspect. We can deal with that later on. 

“But more important for me is the position of the government, saying that the existence of these weapons in Igboho’s place proved that he was planning war against the state. Now that very loaded statement was simply to deliberately conflate issues. It was to obscure the fact that Igboho and other people, myself included, have been decrying the depredations on the lives of law-abiding citizens, farmers especially, throughout the whole nation. 

Danjuma called on the people, saying don’t trust the military anymore. Defend yourselves whichever way you can. And some other voices like governors have made exactly the same statement. 

“Now Igboho, even if he had those weapons, is claiming that his mission is to liberate his people from the tyranny of squatters who now have become violent overlords. And he has a good cause in that sense. Testimonies of farmers who have been brutalised, dehumanised by these squatters who have acknowledged  and identified themselves as Fulani and decades and decades of this anomalous situation in which the people did not necessary, mandatory and entitled defence and protection by the security forces in which sometimes it is the victims who have been jailed.

“My advice is not so much to Igboho, but to the government – that they should stop pursuing this person as a criminal. Because you (the government) have begun by acting in a criminal fashion against him (Igboho). Because if and when Igboho comes to trial, I guarantee you it’s the government that will be very very embarrassed. So it is not even in the interest of the government. I think they should just tell Igboho: we made a mistake; we should not have acted this way; you are no longer wanted. Please go back to your home. In fact, escort him to his home quietly and let him resume his normal life.”

On IPOB leader, there would be an uproar in the country if the truth of how Kanu was arrested becomes known.

“It’s not for me to tell the president to prepare itself because it’s going to be a huge squawk when the truth about how Kanu was arrested comes out. People are alleging this or that. That is one phase whether Nigeria has acted outside international law,” Soyinka said.

“The second issue, however, has to do with Kanu’s conduct outside the nation. There’s been a level of hate rhetoric which has been unfortunate, from Kanu. Hate rhetoric is an issue that can only be judged by the laws of any nation.

“Was it right ‘to have been kidnapped?’ You can say intercepted as much as you want but I think Kanu was kidnapped. That is wrong internationally and morally.

Commenting on the reactions that have trailed the swiftness with which the federal government arrested Kanu, the Nobel laureate said the federal government has not shown the same eagerness in going after bandits and insurgents.

“The government can not wash itself clean on what seems to be a kind of comparative energy in pursuing the destabilised forces in the nation.

“The Miyetti Allah — should have been arrested years ago, long before IPOB was declared a terrorist organisation.”

He said rather, the Miyetti Allah group has continued to act unchecked while the federal government has refused to “mount the same energy against them”.

“So people are right to say there has been an unequal and irregular approach to security and enforcement in this nation,” he added.

He advised the federal government to stop the blame game and take action.

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