Nigerian Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, has implored President Bola Tinubu to stop all killings and bloodshed by state actors.
The remarks were made by Soyinka at the 28th Wole Soyinka Lectures, which held in Port Harcourt with the theme “Reclaiming the Nigerian State through Accountability, Justice and Civic Courage”. The report noted that the inaction of the masses towards State excesses fuels more human rights abuses and infringements.
Soyinka also frowned at the silence of residents which, he said, worsens the situation.
Soyinka said he was paying tribute to those who had died as a result of the failures of the state which has devalued human life.
Soyinka also dedicated his 2026 public lecture to Nigeria’s victims of extrajudicial killings and state excesses, saying the nation’s greatest failure is not just the murders but the collective silence that allows killers to walk free.
Read Also: 24 Ondo Assembly Lawmakers Back Move to Impeach Speaker
“It is for the 18 residents of Ughelli who were butchered by state agencies for no reason whatsoever, just for minding their own businesses; the young man who was shot dead in broad daylight by a policeman while being suspected; and for Deborah, the youth who was hunted through the city by her own classmates, necklaced and set ablaze.
“The crime is the silence of the rest of us that such a thing is possible and that the killers of that girl can actually go on television, hold up a match and say, ‘This is the match with which I set her afire. And that’s where the justice system totally fails us.”
In dismissing critics who accuse him of stoking religious conflict whenever he highlights such cases of abuses, Soyinka noted that sessions like that in Port Harcourt are vital, precisely, to remind Nigerians that the human unit is the least common denominator and the most important element of the community.
He urged citizens to join him in keeping watch on the case of the policeman who shot the young man in the South, and to demand that the justice system not fail again.
