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| Soyinka |
Igbos vote based on their stomach, they suffer from incurable money mindedness- Wole Soyinka
The Igbo ethnic group does seem to be getting a lot of bashing these
days from their countrymen. This time it was Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka
who said they are probably the only set of Nigerians who are
predictable when it comes to voting.
That may not be a bad thing, but then he went on to say, they vote in
the direction of their stomachs. In his words, the Igbo are “suffering
as it were, from incurable money-mindedness, as they would stop at
nothing in their quest for personal financial gain”.
Soyinka said this while delivering a lecture titled, ‘Predicting
Nigeria, Electoral Ironies’ at the Harvard University Hutchins Centre
for African and African American Research in the United States,
according to a gazette by the institution.
He reportedly said: “Igbos remained unrepentant and resolute towards
their strategic objective of secession at worst; or a Nigerian president
of Igbo extraction at best.
“The climax of MASSOB’s war against the Nigerian state was the call
for sit-ins and civil disobedience that shut down markets and public
services, as Igbos stayed at home in a symbolic gesture to assert
Biafran independence. The call was honoured by governors in the two
principal Ibo states, though without fanfare.
“The Igbos are probably the only group of Nigerians that you can
predict with great accuracy whom they will vote for in an election,
because they tend to put their votes where their stomachs take them;
suffering as it were, from incurable money-mindedness, as they would
stop at nothing in their quest for personal financial gain.
“Muhammadu Buhari was the better of the two evils as the incumbent
president Goodluck Jonathan had been an unmitigated disaster and
failure. It was a painful decision to tell people to vote Buhari, but
the country needed a new beginning. I was more against Jonathan, than I
was pro-Buhari. “Nothing is more unworthy of leadership than to degrade a system by
which one attains fulfillment, and this is what the nation witnessed
time and time again under Jonathan, who was increasingly becoming
intolerant of opposition in an escalating streak of impunity and
authoritarian madness, which was most blatant and unconscionable.
“The ‘militricians’ – soldiers turned politicians in power – aren’t
looking for excellence; their civilian cohorts are worse. Short cuts and
how to circumvent the system for the profit of a few are the norm of
governance. Those who do honest work are derided as lacking the skill to
fit it. Ironically, things haven’t quite changed a bit after 16 years
of democracy in the country.” he said.
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