Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka on
Monday visited the United Nations – and called on the Federal Government to
fight Boko Haram in Nigeria.
“This is a violent organisation,” Soyinka told IPS. “What do you
do with them? I am sorry, but you must fight them.”
September 21, the International
Day of Peace was celebrated with a debate about how to build a global culture
of tolerance.
Invited to participate were such superstars as actor Forest
Whitaker, economist Jeffrey Sachs and Soyinka, who was awarded the Nobel Prize
in Literature in 1986.
After his speech, Soyinka spoke to
IPS about the situation in Nigeria, where Boko Haram is responsible for
thousands of deaths and the bombings of several churches in recent years.
He said, “We have an organisation
which closes down schools, shoots faculty teachers, knocks out children and
turns most of the north into an educational wasteland. How can we reach the
children there? We must first get rid of Boko Haram.”
“We have a contradiction. How do
we get rid of Boko Haram? Violence must become involved. That is a dilemma.”
Meanwhile, Minister of Interior,
Mr. Abba Moro has described Sunday bombing of a Catholic Church in Bauchi as “a
cowardly, morally reprehensible and atrocious act”.
Moro said the attack on
defenseless Christian faithful during Sunday service was an act of savagery and
a major threat to peaceful co-existence of people of different religions.
In a statement by his Special
Assistant on Media, George Udoh on Tuesday, the minister said the crime could
not have been perpetrated by a rational person.
He said, “It is unthinkable that
rational minds will just wake up with only one devilish thing in mind; to cause
sorrow to families, wreak deep psychological pain on the society all in the
name of religion or marginalisation.
“It is an act of savagery of the
most unfathomable nature, to maim and kill worshipers on a day which is
globally recognized, as one in which neighbours should extend their hands of
fellowship to believers and non-believers in their faith; such an act is even
unacceptable on any day anywhere in any civilised society the world over.”
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