Professor Wole Soyinka, a Nobel Laureate, has explained why he doesn’t mind if Nigeria’s next president, vice president, and speaker of the House of Representatives are all from the same town and religion prior to the general election in 2023.
Soyinka added that Nigeria has not yet reached a “norm” in which running on the same faith ticket wouldn’t be a problem.
The 88-year-old dramatist participated in a pre-recorded interview that aired on Monday’s episode of Newsnight on Channels Television.
“I don’t give a damn if the president, the vice-President, the speaker, etc. all come from the same village, they have the same religion, they belong to the same tribe,” Soyinka said when asked about his thoughts on the controversy that has trailed the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He added, “If, however, it is transparently, absolutely, unarguable that is a kind of genius breed that has been donated to the nation and to the world, as long as the capability of the individuals who are into governance is proven, and it is quite clear that there is no alternative that is my position.”
“Now, we are talking about a society which is normal, which institutions are normal…Is Nigeria normal?” he asked.
Soyinka made his remarks a few months after Bola Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate, named Kashim Shettima as his running partner.
The fact that Tinubu and Shettima are Muslims has continued to draw criticism from groups like the Christian Association of Nigeria, the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, and Matthew Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of the Sokoto Diocese, among others.
