Nigeria: Boko Haram Plans to Kill Me - Wole Soyinka

Following a threat by the Boko Haram sect that Professor Wole Soyinka would be their next target for attack, the Nobel laureate has raised the alarm, urging security agencies to take action immediately or risk possible disintegration of the country should the sect carry out its threats.

Soyinka, who disclosed this to journalists during a heart-rendering interview in Lagos, said he had reported the series of threats to the security operatives in the country, noting that the operatives had confirmed the information but have not taken action on the threat.

He said: "The reason for this programme (elimination), which I know is very much in the third phase, is that those pushing this agenda know very well that this could be the last straw that will break the camel's back.

"And they would rather this country broke up and possibly in an inferno than continue to accept the loss, even though temporary loss, of power in this country. For these people, government is the only business around."

Obviously unruffled by the threat, he noted that he was not averse to any form of dialogue and negation with the highly dreaded sect, pointing out that the sect ought to have sat at a roundtable with government and make their demands public.

The frontline freedom fighter fondly called "Kongi" by his teeming admirers said he is above any form of human destruction, adding that no violent group including the so called Boko Haram can frighten him to submission.

"I believe that one should not beg for existence. If the price of not coming to table is that you want to eliminate me, and you can do so, please do so. I am 77," he stated. "Please, come to the debating table, but you will not persuade me simply because you have the capacity to blow me and my family up. You can simply go ahead, blow us up if you think that is the way you can do your conversation. But you will not bomb me to sit with you at table."

He lamented that President Gookluck Jonathan is treating the desperation of the forces behind the masquerading Boko Haram sect with kid gloves by not considering the enormity of Islamic struggles in countries like Iraq where fundamentalist Islamic groups had unleashed mayhem on the people.

While noting that dialogue with the sect could be done without resorting to violence, he reminisced that PRONACO, which he joined during former President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration, successfully organised its conference, amended the constitution of the country and presented the document to the government without violence.