See What Wole Soyinka told Gov. Ortom after he Defected from APC to PDP

 

Noble laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has told the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom what to do in the face of persecutions as a result of his decision to defect to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,
from the All Progressives Congress, APC.Soyinka encouraged the Governor to remain resilient despite the “persecution” that followed his decision.

Soyinka gave the advice in his recent letter to the governor, which was made available to reporters in Lagos yesterday.He also argued that Ortom had a moral right to seek an alternative political platform.

The letter read in part, “As a leader of a people who took much of the earliest brunt of unleashed herdsmen savagery and cried in vain for help, you have a moral right to seek the promise of an alternative haven of security for your people.

“They remain your primary responsibility. We are all free to cavil over the actual choice of an alternative destination, but no one can deny the inalienable entitlement to such action, especially where provoked by disillusionment and a sense of impotence under existing association.

“Coincidences are, by their very nature, suspect, and I certainly perceive the beginnings of a heavy-handed campaign of reprisals from ruling circles over your political decision.

“This bodes ill for the nation. It goes beyond any immediately-affected state and alerts us all to fascistic threats against a common democratic destination, and the basic right of free choice of political paths towards its attainment.

“I can only urge you, therefore, to take heart, and remain resilient, unbowed, and undeterred.”

The iconic playwright had last week in Lagos made reference to his letter to Ortom, during the public presentation of his latest interventions series, Interventions VIII, titled, “Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?: Gani’s Unfinished Business”.