Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has stressed the need for religious tolerance among Nigerians. He spoke at the presentation of his latest collection of works: Wole Soyinka: Selected Poems (1965-2022: A Retrospective).
Held, yesterday, at the Rooftop Lounge of Providus Bank, at Adeola Odeku, Victoria Island, Lagos, the Nobel Laureate called for preachers of intolerance to be brought to book.
Noting that victims of intolerance experience death, while perpetrators go unpunished, the scholar made three demands that should be fulfilled to ensure a free and just society. He said case files of those killed as a result of intolerance should be opened.
He wondered why people would burn a driver because he was driving a lorry load of alcohol. “Did anybody force it down your throat?” he asked.
According to him, “it is time to speak truth to one another.” The Noble Laureate was not happy that persons who have instigated killings over blasphemy are allowed to walk free in society without facing the law. This, he said, encourages more religious violence in the country.
Recently, he took on the Emir of Ilorin, Sulu Gambari, for tacitly supporting an Islamic group that stormed the home of an Osun priestess and warned her not to hold any traditional religious festival in the Kwara State capital.
The priestess, Yeye Ajesikemi Olokun Omolara Olatunji, an Osun devotee, had reportedly released fliers announcing a three-day event aimed at celebrating certain Yoruba deities.
Soyinka also tasked embassies that have denied visas to political figures for roles in the last election, including extra-judicial killings. He urged them to extend similar sanction to religious bigots. He also demanded a yearly holiday for traditional worshipers, as obtained with the Muslim and Christian religions.
