Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has said Nigeria’s persistent security challenges are not rooted in religion but in the activities of violent extremists who have exploited faith for political and economic power.
Soyinka made the remarks while reacting to recent statements made by the United States President Donald Trump, who threatened military action against terror groups in Nigeria over the alleged mass killing of Christians.
In late October, Trump said he had ordered the U.S. Department of War to “prepare for possible action” in Nigeria over the alleged killing of Christians.
Soyinka, in an interview published by Democracy Day and seen by our correspondent on Monday, warned against framing Nigeria’s crises along religious lines, stressing that the issue lies instead with extremists who distort religion to justify violence and intolerance.
“We must separate the problems which Nigeria has had for decades from President Trump’s recent response,” he said, when asked for his reaction to Trump’s statement.
The literary icon explained that religious differences in Nigeria had long existed but had only escalated when certain individuals with ulterior motives mixed them with politics.
“The Christian-Islam or Islam versus the rest or even Christianity versus the rest—that kind of dichotomy has existed for quite a few decades. It escalated, (and) it can truly (be) horrendous in any aspect since politics got mixed up with religious differences. In other words, when religious differences began to be invoked as a means of political power, and even social and economic power,” Soyinka said.
He lamented a situation where religious extremists kill someone for alleged blasphemy and go scot-free.
He recalled the lynching of a student accused of blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad, noting that her killers went unpunished despite being caught on video bragging about their actions.
In 2022, a female student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto State, Deborah Yakubu, was killed by some extremist Muslim students over alleged blasphemy.
The 200-level student was set ablaze on May 12, 2022, after she reportedly advised her classmates against posting religious content on their department’s WhatsApp group, which was created for academic purposes.
In 2023, the police said the prime suspects in the act were at large.
Referring to the incident, Soyinka said, “It is those kinds of incidents which escalate, in popular perception, that there is a brutal war going on between Christians and Muslims.”
Soyinka emphasised that Nigeria’s challenge is not Islam or Christianity, but the extremist groups who commit atrocities in the name of religion.