Be Resilient Despite Persecution, Soyinka Tells Gov. Ortom

Professor Wole Soyinka has urged Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State to remain resilient in the face of persecution following his defection from the APC to the PDP.

In a letter made available to newsmen on Monday, the nobel laureate stated that the governor had a moral right to seek an alternative political platform.

Soyinka wrote: “As a leader of a people who took much of the earliest brunt of unleashed herdsmen savagery and cried in vain for help, you have a moral right to seek the promise of an alternative haven of security for your people.

“They remain your primary responsibility. We are all free to cavil over the actual choice of an alternative destination, but no one can deny the inalienable entitlement to such action, especially where provoked by disillusionment and a sense of impotence under existing association.

“Coincidences are, by their very nature, suspect, and I certainly perceive the beginnings of a heavy-handed campaign of reprisals from ruling circles over your political decision.

“This bodes ill for the nation. It goes beyond any immediately-affected state and alerts us all to fascistic threats against a common democratic destination, and the basic right of free choice of political paths towards its attainment.

“I can only urge you, therefore, to take heart, and remain resilient, unbowed, and undeterred.”