Wole Soyinka says Babangida’s memoir on June 12 is incomplete and calls for a probe into related deaths, including Kudirat Abiola and Bola Ige.
Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has dismissed former military president Ibrahim Babangida’s memoir, A Journey in Service, as incomplete. Speaking during a fireside chat in Lagos on Saturday themed “June 12: Romancing the Embers,” Soyinka said Babangida owes the nation a complete account of the June 12, 1993, election annulment. “You haven’t finished your book. You have to write another one,” he said.
Soyinka criticised Babangida’s claims that Sani Abacha and other officers annulled the election, suggesting the ex-president was evading responsibility.
He urged Nigerians to read Babangida’s memoir alongside Professor Omo Omoruyi’s The Tale of June 12.
He also praised recent national honours awarded by President Tinubu to June 12 heroes, but noted key omissions. Soyinka warned against trivialising the struggle and urged Tinubu to investigate unresolved deaths of figures like Dele Giwa, Bola Ige, and Kudirat Abiola.
He dedicated his own honours to the memory of Beko Ransome-Kuti, whom he hailed as a courageous human rights icon.