Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to fulfil his 2023 campaign promise by revisiting unresolved cases of assassinations, extrajudicial killings and other violent deaths across the country.
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Soyinka made the call on Friday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, at the 28th Wole Soyinka Lecture Series organised by the National Association of Seadogs.
The lecture, themed “Reclaiming the Nigerian State through Accountability, Justice and Civic Courage,” was chaired by former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Chief Timi Alaibe.
The Nobel laureate said the event should serve as a reminder of the many unresolved injustices in Nigeria and a tribute to victims who lost their lives due to failures of the state and the silence of society.
He specifically demanded justice for victims of unresolved killings, including Deborah Samuel, the student who was lynched by fellow students in Sokoto State in 2022 after being accused of blasphemy, and Mene Ogidi, a 28-year-old man allegedly shot dead by a police officer in Delta State.
Soyinka also referenced victims of other state failures, including those linked to the Apo killings in Abuja, saying Nigerians must not lose sight of the value of every human life.
He condemned what he described as selective justice, accusing both the judiciary and citizens of failing to consistently confront injustice.
According to him, perpetrators of crimes must be identified, arrested and prosecuted, regardless of their status, background or location.
Soyinka expressed concern that one of Deborah Samuel’s alleged killers reportedly displayed the matchstick used to set her ablaze publicly without being brought to justice years after the incident.
He contrasted that with the swift arrest of the police officer accused of killing Mene Ogidi, saying the differing responses showed a troubling pattern of selective justice.
“That is why my remark is to remind you of that, that actually through me, paying honour to those who’ve lost their lives as a result of these deficiencies in the state and also the criminal participation, even indirect, of ours, the complicity in the decimation and the devaluation of our humanity,” Soyinka said.
“I don’t want us to lose that sense that this session is dedicated to the martyrs, to those who have needlessly and avoidably lost their lives, whom we all admit, the life of a human being constitutes the basic unit of any community, any structure, any system of governance,” he added.
The playwright described Deborah Samuel’s killing as one of the tragedies that should continue to trouble the conscience of the nation.
“It’s dedicated to individuals, the youths, like Deborah, who was killed, who was butchered by her own classmates, hunted through the city, necklaced and set on fire. But that is not the crime. That really is not the crime,” he said.
“The crime is the silence of the rest of us, that such a thing is possible, and that the killers of that girl can actually go on television, hold up a match, and say this is the match with which I set her on fire,” Soyinka added.
He urged Nigerians to demand accountability from government and to insist that unresolved cases of killings and assassinations should not be buried.
Soyinka said President Tinubu had, at a government retreat, asked for the files of unsolved assassinations, killings and extrajudicial killings, but questioned what had become of those files.
“Watch with me so that we can force the government to bring up all the files. When there was a government retreat, you remember? The incoming president said, ‘I want all the files of all the unsolved assassinations, killings, extra-judicial killings.’
“What has happened to those files? I want you to join me in asking President Tinubu to say, ‘We want you to dig up those files. We want to know what happened, why it happened,’” Soyinka said.
He maintained that reclaiming the Nigerian state requires accountability, justice and civic courage, stressing that silence in the face of injustice amounts to complicity in the erosion of humanity.
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