2023 Elections: My trust has broken down completely – Wole Soyinka

 

Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka has said the 2023 elections in Nigeria "broke his trust"

Stating that he was out of the country for some months, Soyinka said the elections was “not exactly the most edifying exercise that we’ve been through.”

 “On arriving, I came in for the World Poetry Day, and immediately, I was bombarded by the most horrendous narratives both pre and after the elections,” he said to Channels TV on Monday, April 3.

 “Since then, I’ve also read columns; I’ve seen Nigerian papers for the first time in months and I didn’t like what I read at all.

“My trust has broken down completely and even the minimum restraint that we’ve learnt to expect from seasoned politicians have been jettisoned completely.”

He said the existing mould was going to be broken.

“And the signs were there that there would be die-hard opposition to the breaking of that mould,” he said. “Elections should be keenly contested. But I still believe very much in what I call the Fashola Dictum., referring to former Lagos Governor Babatunde Fashola, once saying elections should be like festivals.

“They should be yet another aspect of the festive spirit of humanity – and this was anything but festive,” he said.