Photo Credit: Professor Wole Soyinka
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has called on President Bola Tinubu to order the reopening of files on unresolved assassinations and extrajudicial killings across Nigeria.
Soyinka made the call on Friday at the 28th Wole Soyinka Lectures organised by the National Association of Seadogs, Pyrates Confraternity in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, themed “Reclaiming the Nigerian State through Accountability, Justice and Civic Courage”.
He warned that Nigeria risks institutionalising impunity if perpetrators of violent crimes continue to evade justice, adding that successive failures to prosecute killers have emboldened criminals and weakened public trust in the justice system.
The Nobel Laureate urged Nigerians to hold the government accountable by demanding answers on unresolved cases. He recalled that President Tinubu had, upon assuming office, requested files relating to unsolved assassinations and extrajudicial killings.
“I want you to join me in asking the President to dig up those files. We want to know what happened, why it happened, and who is considered valuable as a human being and who can simply be disposed of,” Soyinka said.
He described the failure to secure justice for victims as one of Nigeria’s gravest moral crises, noting that silence in the face of brutality is itself a form of complicity.
Soyinka dedicated the session to victims of avoidable killings, citing the 2022 lynching of Deborah Yakubu, killings in Ogoni, and the recent shooting of a suspect in police custody.
Referring to Deborah Yakubu’s case, he said the most disturbing aspect was not just the murder but the apparent lack of consequences for those responsible.
“No society can claim to value human life when killers openly boast of their actions while the justice system remains ineffective,” he noted.
He also called on Nigerians to closely monitor the prosecution of the policeman accused of killing a suspect in custody, warning that another failed prosecution would reinforce impunity.
“The human being is the basic unit of every community and every system of governance,” Soyinka said, stressing that protecting lives must remain the primary duty of the state.
He urged citizens to reject what he described as the “casual butchery” of Nigerians, regardless of ethnic, religious or political circumstances.
SOURCE: The Sun Nigeria –