We must take the battle to the extremists —Soyinka

Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has condemned the ineptitude of the Nigerian Army in combating the Boko Haram insurgency ravaging some parts of the country, saying the battle must be taken to the extremists.

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This is just as Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, said the solution to the Boko Haram insurgency lies not in military action, but in education and agriculture.

In his keynote speech, entitled “Republic of the Mind and the Cauldron of Fear,” at the opening ceremony of the 2014 World Book Capital, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Wednesday, Soyinka said government must be proactive and resourceful in the fight against the insurgents.
“We must take the battle to the extremists. An army that sits in the barracks in the face of enemy attack is no army at all but a sitting duck,” he said.

The Nobel Laureate, who also condemned the abduction of over 200 female students of Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, allegedly by members of the Boko Haram sect, said it was time to put an end to the menace.
He noted that Boko Haram did not articulate the views of Nigerian Muslims by rejecting knowledge, adding that “true Muslims regard themselves as people of the book, as evident in the ancient manuscripts preserved in Timbuktu, Mali.

“We must take the battle to the enemy, as it extends beyond the physical to the battlefield of the mind where it began and where it will be concluded.”
He said Nigeria was currently undergoing an affliction many would not have imagined decades ago, adding that the President Goodluck Jonathan administration had to do more in tackling the problem of insecurity.
Soyinka said rather than expending his energy on the “Bring Back the Book” initiative launched some years ago, President Jonathan should concentrate on bringing back the girls.
“Today, we will not be so demanding as to ask for the resurrection of the book, but the urgent commitment of bringing back the schoolgirls,” he said.

Also speaking at the event, chairman on the occasion and former military head of state, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, restated the importance of maintaining peace in the country.
“If there is no peace, there won’t be time to read all these books. All Nigerians must put their hands on the deck to ensure there is peace in the country,” he said.
Speaking at the event, the host, Governor Amaechi, said members of the Boko Haram sect were continually shooting and killing people because somebody was paying them, adding that “we have dismantled the illegal economy called militancy in Rivers State.”
Governor Amaechi said given the problems of militancy and criminality that plagued the Niger Delta region, he realised that the quickest way to leap-frog development in Rivers State was to “bring back the book and get our children reading again.

“Our thinking was that if we could address literacy and get poor children back in schools, we could also directly guarantee sustainable development and effective governance.”
In her address, Project Director, Rainbow Book Club, Mrs Koko Kalango, said the importance of book in the life of the people could not be over-emphasised.
Mrs Kalango, however, acknowledged that the task of getting people to read could not be left for the government alone, adding that it must be a collective responsibility, which all must embrace.
Also in her goodwill message, Director-General of United Nations Education, Social and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Ms Irina Bokova, said book was powerful enough to advance individual fulfilment and create an unequalled social change, adding that “intimate and yet deeply social, books provide far-reaching forms of dialogue between individuals, within communities and across time.
“As Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot by the Taliban for attending classes, said in her speech at the United Nations: ‘Let us pick up our books and our pens. They are our most powerful weapons’.”

Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, commended the organizers of the event and said Nigeria should transform into an intellectual capital, noting that knowledge and reading were always positive.
Coming up to the stage after the speeches of Soyinka and Mrs Kalango, the former Minister of Education snapped and demanded for the release of the female secondary school students who were kidnapped by the members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect last week.