Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has come down hard on the present administration in Nigeria, criticising President Goodluck Jonathan on what he described as the reign of impunity under his watch and likening him to the biblical king Nebuchadnezzar.

Professor Soyinka, who spoke in Lagos on Tuesday, frowned specifically at the actions of the police and the interventions of the Inspector General of Police, Mr Sulieman Abba, especially in the incident at the National Assembly where lawmakers were seen scaling fences to access the assembly’s complex

Professor Soyinka said: “The recent choice of a new leader for the guard was clearly no accident, and this hitherto unknown enforcer, one Suleiman Abba, has wasted no time in inaugurating a season of brutish power. When a people’s elected emissaries are disenfranchised, cast out like vagrants and resort to scaling fences to engage in their designated functions, the people get the message.”

The Nobel Laureate, however, asked the President to “act what he says”, emphasising that leaders are judged based on their actions and not pronouncements, which he believed were often as reliable as electoral promises.

Meanwhile, President Jonathan’s Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe described the Professor Soyinka’s allegations as sad and unfortunate.

The presidency said it had observed that the close relationship between Professor Soyinka and the Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, has affected the usually cerebral contributions of Professor Soyinka to national discourse.

“Our eminent professor also sadly plays the ostrich as he failed to reprimand Governor Amaechi, who is the ‘national champion of impunity and official recklessness’. The administration of President Goodluck Jonathan prides itself as the most liberal, keeping faith with adherence to rule of law and tolerance,” Dr. Okupe further said.

He also stressed that it was interesting that Soyinka had chosen to ignore what he termed the immoral, indefensible and unlawful attitude of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, after his defection.

Dr. Okupe then accused Professor Soyinka of maligning the Inspector General of Police who he said only discharged his lawful duties.

•Text courtesy of Channels. Photo shows President Jonathan.

Update news