Professor Wole Soyinka has reiterated his (and called for more) support for Mubarak Bala, a Nigerian atheist and president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria has faced persecution and arrest for leaving Islam and publicly expressing atheistic views. On 5 April 2022, the Kano State High Court sentenced Bala to 24 years imprisonment for his stand.
According to Soyinka: “Thanks to my pledge to seize the first opportunity to personally deliver a signed copy of the recently launched Appeal by the above Prisoner of Conscience, Mubarak Bala, to the President. I have been bombarded by both local and international Human Rights organisations, with inquiries about the outcome. I regret to state that some media have completely misreported this, and I have yet to meet the current tenant of Aso Rock.”
On August 5, Soyinka called for a national dialogue on religion and that it was high time Nigerians interrogated “how religious practices impinge on the rights and freedoms of individuals in the country.” That was at the launch of “A Letter to a President”, which Bala wrote President Bola Ahmed Tinubu seeking his intervention.
However, Soyinka called on all those who participated in the August 5hlaunch of the document as well as well-wishers of Mubarak Bala “to continue and indeed intensify their efforts, through whatever avenues, to secure the release of this unjustly persecuted youth.”
Below is Soyinka’s statement
Mubarak Bala’s Open Letter to the President
Wole Soyinka
Thanks to my pledge to seize the first opportunity to personally deliver a signed copy of the recently launched Appeal by the above Prisoner of Conscience, Mubarak Bala, to the President. I have been bombarded by both local and international Human Rights organisations, with inquiries about the outcome. I regret to state that some media have completely misreported this, and I have yet to meet the current tenant of Aso Rock.
I must however exploit this opportunity to call on all those who participated in the August 5hlaunch of the document as well as well-wishers of Mubarak Bala to continue and indeed intensify their efforts, through whatever avenues, to secure the release of this unjustly persecuted youth whose only crime was to insist on his freedom of thought and belief, and its expression.
There should be no let-up until this symbol of our times is restored to full freedom and human dignity
Wole SOYINKA