Soyinka joins agitations for Buhari’s impeachment over insecurity, bad economy
by Ebor Cletus Ralph Jr
Leading Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has backed the six-week ultimatum set by some federal MPs for President Muhammadu Buhari to stop terrorism or face impeachment.
On Tuesday, Soyinka gave a speech in Abeokuta, Ogun State, at the celebration of the Abeokuta Club’s 50th anniversary.
Participants in the session included Senior Advocate of Nigeria Femi Falana and Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, Registrar of the Joint Administration and Matriculation Board. The conference’s theme was “Good administration or misgovernance: The contract called democracy.”
A group of senators and representatives who were elected on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform gave President Buhari an ultimatum last week over the unrest in Nigeria.
Buhari, according to the moderator Soyinka, should be removed from office for breaking the democratic contract.
He said, “Democracy indicates a contract, that is why the candidate puts on a manifesto. On the basis of that manifesto, the candidate is either accepted or rejected.
“Very often, the grounds for breach of contract, I think we all agree, is mis-governance and one of the ways of breaking this kind of contract we know even before the duration of a contract is known as impeachment.
“The reason we will go by some legislators to impeach the President who is the head of government. In fact, one cleric has gone even further. He believes that the impeachment should take place not in the legislative home, but in the bush with the kidnappers and he appealed to the kidnappers to quicken the process by impeaching the President and taking him away and some of his aides and one or two governors.
“Many of us in this country, including governors, including chairmen of local governments, what comprehension they have of this process called democracy, because what these governors are telling us is that after a failure has occupied a seat of government for eight years, that failure should give us another failure for another eight years.”
