7 total views , 2 views today
Prof. Wole Soyinka.
More severe condemnation of the National Broadcasting Commission’s (NBC) ban on Eedris Abdulkareem’s protest song, “Tell Your Papa”, continues gaining ground as Prof. Wole Soyinka, the Nobel laureate, has added his voice criticising the recent action.
Soyinka said the Commission’s action mirrored a growing trend of intolerance for dissent, and warned that the government risked sliding into authoritarianism if it continued to silence opposing voices.
Read the statement in part: “We have been through this before, over and over again, ad nauseam. We know where it all ends. It is boring, time-wasting, diversionary, but most essential of all, subversive of all seizure of the fundamental right of free expression.
“Oh, bear in mind also theocratic ‘authorities’ that continue to arrogate to themselves the right to arrest and imprison artistes and thinkers for their expression of opinion and vision of human existence.
“The fundamental right of free expression, as already touched upon, is not a closet affair; it is never hidden but echoes as loudly on international fora as in the most obscure hamlet.
“Any government that is tolerant only of yes-men and women, which accommodates only praise-singers and dancers to the official beat, has already commenced a downhill slide into the abyss.
“Whatever regulating body is responsible for this petulant irrationality should be compelled to reverse its misstep”.
Earlier, the Media Rights Agenda (MRA) also faulted the NBC’s move, calling it an “abuse of power”.
Abdulkareem alleged recently that unidentified individuals attempted to bribe him with N200 million following the ban.
