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.