Buhari won the 2015 election by default, says Soyinka

Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka on Monday said President Muhammadu Buhari won the 2015 election by default.

Soyinka made the statement while appearing on BBC programme, Hard Talk, anchored by Zeinab Badawi.

Reacting to Badawi’s question that he backed Buhari in 2015 describing the ex-army general as a “reformed democrat”, Soyinka said, Buhari “won by default” in 2015 because it was difficult to back Jonathan and which meant supporting a continuation of the corruption associated with that regime. Nigerians were caught “between the devil and the deep blue sea”.

The nobel laureate also critized Buhari over his “slow response” in dealing with the terror caused by Fulani herdsmen across many parts of Nigeria.

According to him, the retired army general has failed on the security threat posed by herdsmen, as he is repeating the mistakes of his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, in not dealing with the Boko Haram menace in a timely and adequate fashion.

“The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny”, he said.

While criticizing Jonathan’s ineffective response to Boko Haram, he, however, placed the blame for failing to tackle the problem when it started at the feet of Olusegun Obasanjo, who was president from 1999 to 2007.

Soyinka said; “Obasanjo contributed to the emergence of Boko Haram by not preventing the first governor in one of the northern states from establishing a “theocratic state”.

According to him, Obasanjo failed to act because he was “compromised” by his ambitions to continue in office beyond the second term limit.