Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has come under attack for accepting a national honour presented to him by the Bola Tinubu regime after previously rejecting a similar award in 2014 under the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
On Thursday, Tinubu announced Soyinka as one of the honorees he referred to as democracy heroes.
The Nigerian ruler, in the exercise of his powers, bestowed the honour of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger on the lietrary icon.
The inclusion of Soyinka on Thursday’s national honours list has prompted backlash across social media, with critics accusing him of hypocrisy and double standard.
An X user, @HiikyaaTor, wrote, “He accepted the award because Tinubu his brother gave him. But rejected the Centenery Award offered by Goodluck Jonathan calling it a national insult.
“Is Tinubu‘government better than Jonathan or Prof is playing Double standards.”
Eleven years ago, Soyinka said he rejected Nigeria’s centenary award bestowed on him because of the inclusion on the honours list of the late Nigerian tyrant, General Sani Abacha and other known killers and looters of Nigeria’s treasury.
In a rejection note headlined ”The Canonisation of Terror”, Soyinka observed that the inclusion of Abacha on the list not only shows a failure of moral rigour but it calls into question ”the entire ethical landscape into which this nation has been forced by insensate leadership”.
Soyinka said that the refusal of successive governments to remove the signposts in the nation’s capital bearing Abacha’s name, the inability ”to muster the temerity to wipe out the memory of the nation’s tormentor from daily encounter” demonstrates national self-degradation and a patent lack of political courage.
READ MORE: You Can’t Dictate to Me When to Assess Tinubu – Wole Soyinka Slams Nigerians
Soyinka argued that: ”What the government of Goodluck Jonathan has done is to scoop up a century’s accumulated degeneracy in one pre-eminent symbol, then place it on a podium for the nation to admire, emulate and even worship.
In the ever-vocal world of social media, Soyinka continues to find himself in the eye of the storm.
A vociferous critic of the Jonathan administration has now taken a vow of silence as his ally, Tinubu presides over the ruin of Nigeria.
The question in the court of public opinion remains. What changed? Is it political bias, selective outrage or a shift in perception of governance?
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