Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has called on President Bola Tinubu to end all forms of killings by state actors and the culture of impunity that allows perpetrators to walk free, warning that the nation’s greatest failure is not only the murders themselves but the collective silence that enables them.
Soyinka made the charge on Friday at the 28th Wole Soyinka Lectures organised by the National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity) in Port Harcourt. The event was themed “Reclaiming the Nigerian State through Accountability, Justice and Civic Courage.”
The Nobel Laureate dedicated the lecture to victims of extrajudicial killings and state excesses, describing the persistent devaluation of human life as a moral crisis that demands urgent action.
“Today is dedicated to the 18 Ughelli residents butchered by state agencies for no reason at all, simply for minding their own business; to the young man shot dead in broad daylight by a policeman while under suspicion; and to Deborah, the youth hunted through the city by her own classmates, necklaced and set ablaze,” Soyinka said.
He added: “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 on fire.’ And there the system of justice fails us completely.”
Soyinka urged Nigerians to join him in demanding that President Tinubu dig up the files on all unsolved assassinations, extrajudicial killings and unresolved cases of violence, recalling the President’s earlier pledge upon assuming office to review such files.
He dismissed critics who accuse him of stoking religious conflict whenever he highlights such abuses, insisting that sessions like the Port Harcourt lecture are vital to remind Nigerians that the human unit remains the least common denominator and the most important element of the community.
In his keynote address, former Minister of Aviation Chief Osita Chidoka stressed that justice for most Nigerians begins long before any courtroom starting with how police officers decide whether a complaint is believed or ignored. He revealed that 64 per cent of inmates in custodial centres, including more than 50,000 Nigerians, are awaiting trial and have not been convicted of any crime, describing prolonged pretrial detention as a form of violence carried out by the state itself.
Chairman of the occasion and former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Chief Timi Alaibe, called for honest reflection and renewed commitment to rebuilding the nation, noting that sustainable development cannot exist where accountability is absent.
“Nations are not reclaimed by rhetoric alone; they are reclaimed when conscience triumphs over convenience, when institutions are stronger than individuals, and when citizens summon the courage to do what is right, even when it is difficult,” Alaibe said.