{"id":29076,"date":"2020-08-28T13:57:04","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T13:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=29076"},"modified":"2020-08-28T13:57:12","modified_gmt":"2020-08-28T13:57:12","slug":"soyinka-kicks-against-return-of-rejected-water-bill-killing-of-ipob-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=29076","title":{"rendered":"Soyinka kicks against return of rejected water bill, killing of IPOB members"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Soyinka<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

rofessor Wole Soyinka has kicked against supposed attempts by President Muhammadu Buhari-led government and the National Assembly to return the National Water Resources Bill rejected by the public in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The playwright\u2019s position on the bill followed a recent report that the House of Representatives<\/a> had referred the National Water Resources Bill 2020 to a \u201ccommittee of the whole,\u201d for third reading and passage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement on Thursday, which he entitled \u201cMLK\u2019s mighty stream of righteousness,\u201d Soyinka said: \u201cA roundly condemned project blasted out of sight by public outrage one or two years ago, is being exhumed and sneaked back into service by none other than a failed government, and with the consent of a body of people, supposedly elected to serve as custodians of the rights, freedoms and existential exigencies of millions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis bill \u2013 Bill on National Water resources 2020 \u2013 is designed to hand Aso Rock absolute control over the nation\u2019s entire water resources, both over and underground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe basic facilitator of human existence, water \u2013 forget for now all about streams of righteousness! \u2013 is to become exclusive to one centralised authority. It will be doled out, allocated through power directives from a desensitised rockery that cannot even boast of the water divining wand of the prophet Moses. If the current presiding genius\u2013and this applies equally to all his predecessors without exception \u2013 had a structured vision of Nigerian basic entitlements, Nigerians would by now, be able to boast the means of fulfilling even that minimalist item of COVID-19 protocols that call for washing one\u2019s hands under running water! As for potable water, for drinking and cooking, let us not even begin to address such extra-terrestrial undertaking.l<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat next for the exclusive list? The rains? I declare myself in full agreement with virtually every pronouncement of alarm, outrage, opprobrium and repudiation that has been heaped upon this bill and its parentage, both at its first outing and since this recent re-emergence. It is time to move beyond denunciations however and embark on practical responses for its formal deactivation and permanent internment. Let all retain in their minds that, from the same source that preached the \u2018streams of righteousness\u2019 is encountered the promise of \u2018no more floods, the fire next time.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soyinka also condemned the killing of some members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)<\/a> by officials of the Department of State Security (DSS) in Enugu on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nobel laureate, harping on the \u2018Black Lives Matter\u2019 movement provoked by the racial killing of a black man by a United States cop and Martin Luther King\u2019s speech to discard racism, said in the past few days he had mulled over the watershed episode and was compelled to rephrase: Do Nigerian lives matter? Do farmers\u2019 lives matter? Do IPOB lives matter? Do innocent lives matter? And most disturbingly: Do future lives matter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne passage in Martin Luther King\u2019s \u201cI have a Dream\u201d has leapt to the forefront as a warning that relates to that final interrogatory \u2013 do future lives matter? And it does so in a most literal manner, one that MLK could never have envisioned! It persists in echoing through the mind, reinforced by the recent killings of innocent humanity \u2013 mostly youths \u2014 in Enugu, by state forces, under the pretext \u2013 shall we presume? \u2013 of preventing secessionist agitations?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the promulgators of the obscenity, high and low, should understand that the placid waters they think to control unjustly and grotesquely, would turn to be Martin Luther King\u2019s \u201cmighty stream of righteousness\u201d that would overwhelm and sweep them off their complacent, and increasingly loathsome sectarian and conspiratorial heights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne polluted stream of human existence compounds the next. A violation here joins forces with its tributary of resentment there yonder, all seemingly unconnected. Martin Luther King\u2019s streams of righteousness turn into a mighty torrent of repulse that overwhelms the perpetrators but, alas, takes down much else as collateral, irreparable damage. That is the only cause for regret and \u2013 restraint. Hence our duty to position that anguished question frontally, and call the world to witness our open propagation of that challenge: Do future lives matter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet Buhari and his myrmidons ponder that question in the deepest recesses of their hearts and minds. They should not bequeath to future generations the harvest of the grapes of wrath!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

rofessor Wole Soyinka has kicked against supposed attempts by President Muhammadu Buhari-led government and the National Assembly to return the National Water Resources Bill rejected by the public in 2018. The playwright\u2019s position on the bill followed a recent report that the House of Representatives had referred the National Water Resources Bill 2020 to a \u201ccommittee of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nSoyinka kicks against return of rejected water bill, killing of IPOB members » WatchDog Plus Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=29076\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Odofin\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=29076#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=14\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Soyinka kicks against return of rejected water bill, killing of IPOB members\"}]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Soyinka kicks against return of rejected water bill, killing of IPOB members » WatchDog Plus Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=29076","author":"Odofin","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=29076#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=14"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Soyinka kicks against return of rejected water bill, killing of IPOB members"}]}]}},"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Odofin","author_link":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?author=2"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=14\" rel=\"category\">News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"rofessor Wole Soyinka has kicked against supposed attempts by President Muhammadu Buhari-led government and the National Assembly to return the National Water Resources Bill rejected by the public in 2018. The playwright\u2019s position on the bill followed a recent report that the House of Representatives had referred the National Water Resources Bill 2020 to a \u201ccommittee of…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29076"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29076"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}