Buhari Is a Born Again - Soyinka

Nobel Laureate and pioneer Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) chairman Professor Wole Soyinka, in an interview with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) periodical, "Zero Tolerance", referred to President Muhammadu Buhari as a "born-again" phenomenon who is set to make restitution for his past errors, in relation to the Nigerian political sphere.

Speaking on Buhari's unspoken apology to Nigeria for his past misdeeds, he said: "He (Buhari) has not brought himself round to apologise; if he had done that, I might have been less ambiguous about him. But I think from my findings about him, he is a born again phenomenon. If I am wrong, well, too bad. Though I don't believe in 'born-againism' but I think this may be an exception."

Talking about the statement made concerning stealing and corruption, by former President Goodluck Jonathan at a talk which took held before the 2015 presidential elections, he said: "The media should have challenged President Jonathan to define what stealing is, when he said that stealing is not corruption. How can a public figure, an intelligent person like that, come out to tell the public that corruption is not stealing? Then you should have asked him, what then is corruption? The media should have challenged him."

Finally, on his idea of confraternities in Nigeria, Soyinka says:

"Everybody knows that fraternities are a normal culture in all colleges. It exists in all colleges.

"President Clinton was a member of a fraternity. In fact, anybody who goes to college in the United States is a member of a college fraternity. There is absolutely nothing evil or occultic about fraternity.

"But here, the media is largely responsible for fuelling the ignorance of society of the words 'cultism' and 'fraternity'.

"This is a disservice and I have said it again and again. There are evil cults, whose members must prove themselves by going to rape. There are others whose entry is to slash or eat somebody or rob; it has nothing to do with college fraternity.

"The media owes the responsibility to constantly tell the public the truth. But they go on and children grow up, believing that college fraternity is Satanic, demonic and this is wrong."