Playwright Soyinka to return to Nigeria

Playwright Soyinka to return to Nigeria

SYDNEY (DPA): Exiled Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka said
yesterday he was confident of returning to Nigeria and predicted
the violent overthrow of current strongman Gen. Sani Abacha.

Soyinka, the celebrated writer, lecturer and political
activist, is in Australia for the opening of his play The
Beatification of Area Boy.

"I'm convinced that the seizure of the nation...by a bunch of
military thugs is something which will constantly be contested as
long as Nigerians are Nigerians," he said.

Soyinka, who went into exile in the United States after
serving two years in jail for criticizing the Nigerian
authorities in the late 1960s, is the only African to win a Nobel
Prize for literature.

He said he expected an uprising against Abacha and would not
condemn that violence. Abacha took control in Africa's biggest
country four years ago, promising to hand power back to civilians
by 1996. The deadline for the handover has now been set for 1998.