Nobel Laureate,Professor Wole Soyinka has urged Nigerians not to vote for President Goodluck Jonathan, whose government he described as an absolute failure.
Soyinka who gave this advice on Thursday at this year’s edition of Vision of the Child (VOTC), a yearly programme that debuted in 2012, said he has identified 60 reasons to vote against a continuation of Jonathan in office.
“I will not vote and I will not encourage anyone to vote for the continuation of this government, simply because your colleagues numbering over two hundred were kidnapped and the government of this nation failed to show leadership.
“So anyone who says after that event that I will vote or cast my vote or encourage anyone to vote for this regime must be living in Sambisa forest,” Soyinka told students at the event in reference to the students of Chibok Girls’ School, Borno State, who were kidnapped on 14 April 2014.
Soyinka said it took the Jonathan government ten days to even accept that the Chibok girls were even missing.
“After that dereliction of duty, after that failure of leadership, after that betrayal for our future, for anyone to think or to put words in my mouth suggesting that I will vote or encourage anyone to vote for this regime is a travesty of intelligence, ” Soyinka said.
Soyinka also reacted to rumours about his death, jokingly warning journalists against misquoting him if they don’t want him to rise from the dead to correct them.
The 2015 edition of Vision of the Child has for theme “The Road to Sambisa”.
This year, a total of 250 student participants from 60 primary and secondary schools within Lagos attended the interview. The age bracket for the participants was 9 to 12 years.
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