Jonathan/Amaechi: Soyinka warns on political pettiness

Okafor Ofiebor/ Port-Harcourt

Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has expressed alarm at the way that the judiciary is being debased and manipulated by desperate politicians in Nigeria.

He spoke in Port Harcourt against the backdrop of the recent Abuja High Court judgment that removed Chief G. U. Ake’s team as the elected executives of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in Rivers State.

“I think that the judiciary right now while it is trying to reform itself, recognizes the fact that there are still some dark areas and I think it is the effect of the dark areas that seems to be creating a crisis in Rivers State right now…. I am just alarmed. It appears to me that the judiciary is being manipulated. That is the impression which I had and that is an alarm which should be sounded in every corner of the nation”, Prof. Soyinka told journalists.

Soyinka also lashed out at pettiness in governance at any level, saying that it is not appropriate for any government in a democratic situation to pay more attention to small and unimportant issues than the serious matters.

Prof. Soyinka commented on the grounding of the Bombardier BD-700 jet owned by the state by the federal government.

He described what is happening to Amaechi’s Government as pettiness in governance.

“Witch-hunting is a very heavy word. Let me just say this generally that I hate evidence of pettiness in governance. I think pettiness at any level is unbecoming of any democratic situation”.

He said that as a citizen of this country, he is personally affected by what is happening in the state, adding that he cannot escape all that is going on at the opposite end of the nation.

The Nobel Laureate appealed to public holders at all levels not to manipulate the judiciary because doing so will be an invitation of chaos and total anarchy.

Soyinka who came to Port Harcourt because of the emergence of the city as 2014 World Book Capital,stressed the need to use knowledge to fight the forces of retrogression in the Nigerian society.