Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, has challenged President Bola Tinubu to order the reopening of files on unresolved assassinations and extrajudicial killings across the country, warning that Nigeria risks institutionalising a culture of impunity if perpetrators of violent crimes continue to evade justice.
He stated this at the 28th Wole Soyinka Lectures organised by the National Association of Seadogs, Pyrates Confraternity in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Friday with the theme “Reclaiming the Nigerian State through Accountability, Justice and Civic Courage”.
Soyinka said successive failures to prosecute those responsible for unlawful killings had emboldened criminals and weakened public confidence in the justice system.
He urged Nigerians to hold the government accountable by demanding answers on unresolved cases, recalling that the President 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.
The Nobel Laureate described the persistent failure to secure justice for victims as one of the country’s gravest moral crises, insisting that silence in the face of brutality was itself a form of complicity.
He dedicated the session to victims of avoidable killings, citing the 2022 lynching of Deborah Yakubu, the killing of residents in Ogoni, and the recent shooting of a suspect by a policeman while in custody.
Referring to the killing of Deborah Yakubu, Soyinka said the most disturbing aspect was not only the murder itself but the apparent absence of consequences for those responsible.
According to him, no society can claim to value human life when killers openly boast of their actions while the justice system remains ineffective.
Soyinka 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 a dangerous pattern of impunity.
He argued that every unresolved case sends a signal that some lives are expendable, thereby encouraging further acts of violence.
“The human being is the basic unit of every community and every system of governance,” he said, stressing that the protection of life must remain the primary responsibility of the state.
Calling on citizens to reject what he described as the “casual butchery” of Nigerians, Soyinka said the nation must no longer tolerate killings regardless of the ethnic, religious or political circumstances surrounding them.
He maintained that justice for victims was essential not only for their families but also for preserving the country’s humanity and the rule of law.
Credit: The Sun