Leadership
(Abuja)
Ladi Kayode
18 January 2008
Abeokuta — Former gubernatorial aspirant in Ogun State, under the banner of Action Congress (AC) and publisher of the widely read Africa Today Magazine, Asiwaju Kayode Soyinka, has condemned the non-challance of Nigeria government towards Kenya's current political crisis.
Soyinka in a statement made available to journalists in Abeokuta said, "I feel somewhat compelled as a pan-Africanist and publisher of Africa Today to express my sadness in Nigeria's inability to intervene and mediate directly in the political crisis that is currently rocking Kenya in the aftermath of its recent general elections".
He noted that the efforts of respected African figures like President John Kufuor of Ghana; former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan; former archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu; and others to mediate in the crisis seem not to be yielding quick results and the country, which was once an oasis of peace and a leading African country, continues to burn.
According to him, "Yet, it is in Nigeria that Africa has the man with perhaps the greatest influence on the opposition leader, Raila Odinga in the former president Olusegun Obasanjo, who could have been sent as President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's special envoy to help reconcile Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki, in Kenya's most crucial moment of need for help".
The famous publisher, stressed further that, in an ideal situation, where Nigeria itself has conducted its domestic affairs creditably and shown leadership and good example in Africa on how to conduct credible elections, and saved the world the embarrassment of last year's controversial general elections itself, "Obasanjo should by now be seen as the most perfect reconciler in the Kenyan political crisis, shuttling between Nairobi and Kisumu trying diplomatically and using to great effect his personal influence on both Kenyan leaders, most especially Odinga, and persuading them to sheath their swords and embrace the path of peace and national reconciliation'.
He recalled that, Obasanjo was the special guest of honour at the funeral rites of Raila's father, the legendary first vice-president of Kenya at independence, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.
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