Where is Wole Soyinka?

Nobel literature laureate Wole Soyinka could have been the “conscience of the nation”. This was a man who was imprisoned without trial under the military dictatorship of Yakubu Gowon during the Nigerian civil war for standing up against injustice to the Biafran side.
While in prison, the wrote the masterpiece “The Man Died”, which contained the killer quote: “the man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny”. The Soyinka of the past could be trusted not to keep silent in the face of tyranny. Nigerians could rely on him most times to call time on the excesses of the charlatans that have visited themselves on the country. He recognized how essential this was when he said: “The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism”.Read More