Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka finally speaks on the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s Muslim-Muslim ticket.
Speaking as a moderator at the lecture/interactive session organised by the historic Abeokuta Club to mark its 50th anniversary on Tuesday, Soyinka condemned the furore generated by the Muslim/Muslim presidential ticket as Nigerians head towards general elections next year.
According to him such agitation either for or against the Muslim/Muslim ticket, which is currently heating the polity, is not only unnecessary but also a reflection of how the country has been fractured along religious lines and its citizens made to look different from one another right from childhood.
He said, “They are equal and they are being encouraged to see one another as human beings, not as separate creatures. And I want to be informed if it is against democracy that schools insist that uniforms be worn by children so that they are not distinguished in a very dramatic way. So that they do not look at one another as different.
“So now I’m talking to religionists. I’m saying why do you want to create such marked differentiation at that age, that impressionable age, when we need to teach our children to look at one another as equals, as the same people, the same entitled creatures of society?
“These are issue which I hope we will also touch. Because when we hear expressions like Muslim/Muslim ticket, Christian/Christian ticket, orisa/orisa worshipper ticket. This where it all begins. This is where the nervousness begins.
“This is where the anxiety and the phobia begin. This is where it begins, when you teach the children to be different at an age when they are so impressionable. These are issues I hope you will help to resolve.”
