Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, has told President Muhammadu Buhari to “rein in your wild dogs of disobedience”, after the Department of State Services (DSS) rearrested the convener of #RevolutionNow movement, Omoyele Sowore.
In a statement on Friday, Soyinka described Sowore’s rearrest as a degradation of the judiciary.
“Only yesterday, in my commentary on the ongoing Sowore saga, I pointed out the near-perfect similarity between plain crude thuggery and the current rage of court disobedience. Little did I suspect that the state children of disobedience would aspire to the level of the African wild dogs on a pack hunt,” Soyinka said.
“I apologize for underestimating the DSS capacity for the unthinkable. I reiterate the nation’s concern, indeed alarm, about the escalating degradation of the judiciary through multiple means, of which disobedience of court orders is fast becoming the norm.
“May I remind this government that disobedience calls to disobedience, and that disobedience of the orders of the constitutional repository of the moral authority of arbitration the judiciary can only lead eventually to a people’s disregard of the authority of other arms of civil society, a state of desperation that is known, recognized and accepted as civil disobedience.
“It is so obvious state disobedience leads eventually to civil disobedience, piecemeal or through a collective withdrawal of recognition of other structures of authority.
That way leads to chaos but who set it in motion? As is often the case, the state, unquestionably. Such a state bears full responsibility for the ensuing social condition known as anomie.
“It has become imperative and urgent to send this message to President-General Buhari: Rein in your wild dogs of disobedience. And for a start, get a trainer to teach them some basic court manners!”
On Friday, DSS operatives rearrested Sowore and Olawale Bakare at the federal high court in Abuja, less than 24 hours after they were released on the order of the court.
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