Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has thrown a direct challenge at President Bola Tinubu, demanding the reopening of files on unresolved assassinations and extrajudicial killings, warning that Nigeria is fast becoming a country where killers walk free without consequences.
Speaking at the 28th Wole Soyinka Lecture organised by the National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity) in Port Harcourt on Friday, Soyinka said years of failed prosecutions had fuelled a dangerous culture of impunity and eroded public trust in the justice system.
He urged Nigerians to join him in pressuring the President to act, recalling that Tinubu had requested files on unsolved assassinations and extrajudicial killings shortly after taking office.
“I want you to join me in asking the President to dig up those files. We want to know what happened, why it happened, and who is considered valuable as a human being and who can simply be disposed of,” Soyinka declared.
The literary icon described the failure to punish killers as one of Nigeria’s greatest moral failures, warning that silence over such crimes only encourages more bloodshed.
He dedicated the lecture to victims of avoidable killings, including Deborah Yakubu, who was lynched in 2022, victims of violence in Ogoni, and the suspect recently shot dead by a police officer while in custody.
Soyinka said Deborah’s killing remains especially troubling because those responsible appear to have escaped justice, adding that no nation can claim to value human life while killers openly boast about their crimes.
He also urged Nigerians to closely monitor the prosecution of the policeman accused of killing a suspect in custody, warning that another failed case would send the message that some lives simply do not matter.
“Every unresolved killing tells criminals they can get away with murder,” he said, stressing that protecting human life is the government’s first duty.
Calling on Nigerians to reject what he described as the country’s “casual butchery,” Soyinka insisted that no killing should be excused because of ethnicity, religion or politics, adding that justice for victims is essential to preserving both humanity and the rule of law.
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