Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has described the total lockdown
orders issued by President Buhari in Lagos and Ogun States over
coronavirus as illegal and unconstitutional.
Soyinka who insisted that President Buhari does not have the power to
unilaterally lockdown a state as there is no war or emergency, wondered
why a President president who had been conspicuously AWOL woke after a
prolonged siesta to issue orders.
The Nobel Laureate also described President Buhari as the Rip van
Winkle of Nigerian history (a person who is oblivious to changes
especially in social attitudes or thought) in his statement ‘Between
Covid and Constitutional Encroachment.’
His statement reads;
“Constitutional lawyers and our elected representatives should kindly
step into this and educate us, mere lay minds,” Mr Soyinka, a professor
of comparative literature, began in the statement.“The worst development I can conceive is to have a situation where
rational measures for the containment of the Corona pandemic are
rejected on account of their questionable genesis. This is a time for
unity of purpose, not nitpicking dissensions.“So, before this becomes a habit, a question: does President Buhari
have the powers to close down state borders? We want clear answers.“Appropriately focussed on measures for the saving lives and
committed to making sacrifices for the preservation of our communities,
we should nonetheless remain alert to any encroachment on
constitutionally demarcated powers.‘We need to exercise collective vigilance, and not compromise the
future by submitting to interventions that are not backed by law and
constitution.“A president who has been conspicuously AWOL, the Rip van Winkle of
Nigerian history, is now alleged to have woken up after a prolonged
siesta and begun to issue orders. Who actually instigates these orders
anyway? From where do they really emerge?“What happens when the orders conflict with state measures, the
product of a systematic containment strategy- – `including even
trial-and-error and hiccups — undertaken without let or leave of the
centre.“So far, the anti-COVID-19 measures have proceeded along the rails of
decentralised thinking, multilateral collaboration and technical
exchanges between states.“The Centre is obviously part of the entire process, and one expects
this to be the norm, even without the epidemic’s frontal assault on the
Presidency itself. Indeed, the Centre is expected to drive the overall
effort, but in collaboration, with extraordinary budgeting and
refurbishing of facilities.“The universal imperative and urgency of this affliction should not
become an opportunistic launch pad for a sneak RE-CENTRALISATION, no
matter how seemingly insignificant its appearance. I urge governors and
legislators to be especially watchful. No epidemic is ever cured with
constitutional piracy. It only lays down new political viruses for the
future.”