Nigerian Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has urged President Bola Tinubu to put an end to all forms of killings and bloodshed by state actors.
Soyinka at the 28th Wole Soyinka Lectures, which held in Port Harcourt with the theme “Reclaiming the Nigerian State through Accountability, Justice and Civic Courage” made the remarks. The report noted that the inaction of the masses towards State excesses fuels more human rights abuses and infringements.
Soyinka also frowned at the silence of residents which, according to him, worsens the situation.
According to Soyinka, he was honouring those who had died because of the state’s failures which have devalued human life.
Soyinka also dedicated his 2026 public lecture to the victims of Nigeria’s extrajudicial killings and state excesses, saying the nation’s greatest failure is not just the murders but the collective silence that allows killers to walk free.
“Today is dedicated to the 18 Ughelli residents butchered by state agencies for no reason at all, simply for minding their own business; to the young man shot dead in broad daylight by a policeman while under suspicion; and to Deborah, the youth hunted through the city by her own classmates, necklaced and set ablaze.
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“The crime is the silence of the rest of us, that such a thing is possible and that the killers of that girl can actually go on television, hold up a match and say, ‘This is the match with which I set her afire. And that’s where the justice system fails us completely.”
Soyinka dismissed critics who accuse him of stoking religious conflict whenever he highlights such cases of abuses, noting that sessions like that in Port Harcourt are vital, precisely, to remind Nigerians that the human unit is the least common denominator and the most important element of the community.
He called on citizens to join him in monitoring the case of the policeman who shot the young man in the South, and to demand that the justice system does not fail once again.