by Isi Esene

Internationally renowned playwright, Prof. Wole Soyinka has flayed President Goodluck Jonathan over his suspicious posturing regarding the crisis presently rocking the Rivers State House of Assembly.

Soyinka who was speaking at a press conference in Lagos condemned Jonathan and First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan for being a tool of destabilisation in the state.

He said it was regrettable that Patience was giving tacit support to those opposing Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s authority in the state.

According to Soyinka, “Too much is too much. She is now being used to reduce the authority of an elected governor.”

Read the Punch Newspapers report below;

Although the  playwright  enjoined Jonathan to intervene in the crisis in order to restore normalcy to the state Assembly and the entire state, he fired a salvo at him: His seeming indifference  led to the pandemonium in the Assembly on Tuesday.

He said,   “There is a certain way a leader can convey certain coded messages to his  followers and they will be acting accordingly. That President Jonathan might not have openly declared support for what is going on, his comportment, his carriage and most especially, his silence might have indicated his meddlesomeness in the matter.”

Making a comparison between Tuesday’s incident on the floor of the  Assembly and the circumstances that led to the 12th Century murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, on the orders of King Henry II, he warned that the crisis in Rivers might   lead the country into what he described as absolute monarchism, if not quickly checked.

A Senior Advocate of  Nigeria,  Femi Falana, who was at the meeting,   urged   Nigerians to disregard the “illegality” being perpetuated in the Rivers Assembly.

“There is a Speaker known to everyone, while the other one is unknown, even to the President,” he said as he   called for the removal of the state  Commissioner of Police  for his role in the crisis.