Jonathan allowed insurgency to fester, says Soyinka

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka
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Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on Tuesday said the era of denial of President Goodluck Jonathan on the magnitude of the Boko Haram menace was over.

Soyinka said the President should have sought international assistance long ago before allowing the situation to fester and escalate.

He accused the President of failing to heed his earlier warnings and addressing the insurgency “very late and lackadaisically.”

He spoke on Tuesday during a global affairs interview television programme, Amanpour, on Cable News Network, monitored by our correspondent in Lagos.

Soyinka described the video released by the leader of the sect, Abubakar Shekau, as  “gleeful obscenity” and called on the international community to intervene.

He said, “President Jonathan should have asked for it (assistance) from the very beginning. I don’t believe in false pride. The history of the movement to which Boko Haram belongs is one which is a menace to the entire world.

“This is a government which is not only in denial mentally but is in denial of certain obvious steps to take. It is the missing humanity that the problem will go away; an attitude that occurs in the subconscious.

“But, one thing is certain, the President and his government cannot sleep easily after what has happened to Nigeria.  The era of denial and indifference has ended. The situation has now gone beyond the President and the solution must be internationalised.”

Lamenting the slow response of the Federal Government  to the news of the abduction of the female pupils of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, Soyinka said, the development was “really agonising.”

“The government of the nation is in serious trouble. The person who has no excuse is the President of the nation. I’m calling now not on the nation but on the international community to take action. This is a global problem and the foothold is being very deeply entrenched in West Africa,” Soyinka added