Soyinka joins agitations for Buhari’s impeachment over insecurity, bad economy

Professor Wole Soyinka, a foremost Nobel laureate, has supported the six-week deadline set by certain federal lawmakers for President Muhammadu Buhari to end terrorism or risk being impeached.

Soyinka spoke in Abeokuta, Ogun State, during the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Abeokuta Club, on Tuesday.

The session’s theme was “Good administration or misgovernance: The contract called democracy,” and participants included Senior Advocate of Nigeria Femi Falana and Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, Registrar of the Joint Administration and Matriculation Board.

Last week, a number of senators and representatives elected on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform issued an ultimatum to President Buhari over the insecurity in Nigeria.

The moderator of the debate, Soyinka, urged that Buhari should be removed from office because he had violated the democratic contract.

Read also: ‘Show leadership to save Nigeria from collapse,’ Soyinka tells Buhari

He said, “Democracy indicates a contract, that is why the candidate puts on a manifesto. On the basis of that manifesto, the candidate is either accepted or rejected.

“Very often, the grounds for breach of contract, I think we all agree, is mis-governance and one of the ways of breaking this kind of contract we know even before the duration of a contract is known as impeachment.

“The reason we will go by some legislators to impeach the President who is the head of government. In fact, one cleric has gone even further. He believes that the impeachment should take place not in the legislative home, but in the bush with the kidnappers and he appealed to the kidnappers to quicken the process by impeaching the President and taking him away and some of his aides and one or two governors.

“Many of us in this country, including governors, including chairmen of local governments, what comprehension they have of this process called democracy, because what these governors are telling us is that after a failure has occupied a seat of government for eight years, that failure should give us another failure for another eight years.”

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