Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has criticized President Bola Tinubu’s nationwide broadcast, stating it failed to address the violent crackdown on #EndBadGovernance protesters by security agencies.

In a statement, Soyinka highlighted the “tragic response” to the ongoing hunger protests, noting it represents a retrogression beyond the deadly culmination of the ENDSARS protests. He mentioned that the use of live ammunition and tear gas canisters evokes pre-independence times.

Soyinka stated, “His outline of the government’s remedial action since inception, aimed at warding off just such an outbreak, will undoubtedly receive expert and sustained attention both for effectiveness and in content analysis. My primary concern, quite predictably, is the continuing deterioration of the state’s seizure of protest management, an area in which the presidential address fell conspicuously short.”

He criticized the security agencies for their harsh response to peaceful protests, stressing that hunger marches are a universal plea for help. Soyinka condemned the use of live bullets and tear gas against protesters, describing it as an ominous retrogression and a prelude to more desperate upheavals.

Soyinka recalled the nationwide 2022/23 Yellow Vest movement in France as a model for non-lethal protest management. He urged Nigeria to abandon the anachronistic resort to lethal means by security agencies and called for a transformation in protest management, reflecting on the nation’s history of colonial oppression.

In his closing remarks, Soyinka encouraged today’s marchers to adopt the songs of Hubert Ogunde’s “Bread and Bullets” to instill a sense of shame in the ongoing failure to transcend colonial-era responses to civic protests.