Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole
Soyinka, declared on Thursday that no one should vote for the continuation of
President Goodluck Jonathan’s government, saying that there has been a total
failure in leadership.
He said he has sixty reasons
not to vote for the Jonathan regime.
“I will not vote and I will
not encourage anyone
to vote for the continuation of this government, simply because your colleagues
numbering over two hundred were kidnapped, ” Soyinka told students at the 2015
edition of Vision of the Child (VOTC), a yearly programme inaugurated in 2012.
He said the Chibok girls
kidnapped on 14 April of last year were sent on a mission to acquire an
education, but ended up being kidnapped.
“And the government of this
nation failed to show leadership. So anyone who says after that event that I
will vote or cast my vote or encourage anyone to vote for this regime must be
living in Sambisa forest,” Soyinka said, referring to a forest in Borno State
where the Chibok girls are believed to be held by Boko Haram.
“There has been a failure of
leadership. Our children whom you represent today have been betrayed,” Soyinka said, adding that
no appropriate action was taken to retrieve them.
Soyinka said it took the
Jonathan government ten days to even accept that the Chibok girls were even
missing.
“After that dereliction of
duty, after that failure of leadership, after that betrayal for our future, for
anyone to think or to put words in my mouth suggesting that I will vote or
encourage anyone to vote for this regime is a travesty of intelligence, ”
Soyinka said.
Soyinka laughed off those who
had claimed on the social media that he was dead, telling journalists at the event that
they should not misquote him. If they do, he added, he will rise from the dead
to correct them.
The 2015 edition of Vision of
the Child has for theme “The Road to Sambisa”.
This year, a total of 250
student participants from 60 primary and secondary schools within Lagos attended
the interview. The age bracket for the participants was 9 to 12 years.
Their entries were assessed by
a panel of eminent judges comprising teachers, artists, child carers and social
workers.
The finalists will be invited
on the 7 March to the National Conversation Foundation Park. Lekki, and
provided with brush, paint and easel, and will be required to illustrate their
literary presentation in the complementary medium painting.
This year, 60 finalists were
drawn from 35 schools within Lagos State, said Foluke George, Festival Secretary and
Programme Manager for the Vision of the Child.
Source:sahara
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