Literary Icon and Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has described the recently concluded 2019 general election in Nigeria as the most depressing election the country has ever had.
The writer made this know while speaking during an interview program on BBC Africa, Hard Talk.
“The 2019 election is one of the most depressing elections we’ve been through. Talking for myself, it wasn’t possible for me to make a choice for the simple reason that both candidates (President Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar) had histories – one immediate, one past – which made one look for alternatives.”
When asked by the anchor, Zeinab Badawi, if his generation failed the country, the professor answered affirmatively.
“Yes, I believe so,” he said. “I compare today with dreams and aspirations we had when we all rushed home after studies abroad. We considered ourselves the renaissance people that were going to lift the continent to world standards, competitors anywhere. It hasn’t happened.”
According to him, Nigerians are depressed by the conduct of the last election.
While speaking on why President Muhammadu Buhari won the election during the 2015 general election, the professor said “General Buhari didn’t really win the first election, he won by default. It was impossible to continue with Jonathan (back in 2015).
“As it happened, yes, I did use that expression ‘born again democrat.’ When somebody competes in an election three, four times and persists, he must believe in democracy… the circumstances in Nigeria, the fact that Nigerians have shown the military what a huge failure they were makes it possible for one to identify the possibility of exceptions when they seem to behave like democrats.
“But in any case, I kept emphasising that Nigerians had a very difficult choice and as I said, it was between the devil and the deep blue sea.”
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