Our Soldiers Have Gone Mad Again - Wole Soyinka Laments
Following the mayhem caused by military personnel last Friday at Palmgrove, Lagos, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has likened Nigerian soldiers to the deadly Boko Haram sect.
Prof. Wole Soyinka
Speaking on Saturday night at the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa, the Nobel laureate labelled as barbaric the act of soldiers who went on rampage, burning some BRT buses on Ikorodu road, Lagos.
Describing the soldiers’ attack on innocent people as madness, Soyinka took a cue from the late Prof. Ola Rotimi, in his social work, 'Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again' saying "our soldiers have gone mad again.”
Soyinka said, "Totally out of control, treacherous because they’re attacking civilians rather than protecting civilians, simply because of a collective, that is selective, mentally wound on their ego.
"But when they turn around on citizens simply because one of them was accidentally killed on the road, then I have to consider them as allies of Boko Haram."
RELATED: Soldiers Didn’t Burn BRT Buses In Lagos – Nigerian Army
He further wondered why those soldiers considered their lives more special than those of the citizens, particularly in a country where people have continued to die through senseless acts of terror.
He therefore called on President Goodluck Jonathan to bring the culprits to book.
"They must be made to understand that even though they lay their lives on the line, they are sustained by the resources and the will of this nation," he said.
Following the attack on civilians by soldiers after one of their colleague was reportedly hit by a BRT bus, the Lagos state Governor, Babatunde Fashola in a statement condemned the act of burning BRT buses.
Meanwhile a LAGBUS official, Abiodun Apata said that BRT wasn’t responsible for the death of the soldier as they reportedly found that "a corpse had been deposited in our bus and a motorcycle parked behind it".
Source: Legit.ng