Nigeria's Nobel winner scolds 'dancing' president

LAGOS

Nigerian Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka has criticized President Goodluck Jonathan for behavior out of step with the national mood given that scores of schoolgirls remain unaccounted for since a militant attack on their school last week.

"A national leader should have been mobilizing the entire nation for the abducted girls rather than taking to the dance floor in Kano," Soyinka said, referring to Jonathan's recent political rally in the northwestern state of Kano.

The president was pictured dancing aside other leading members of his ruling Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) on April 15.

On April 14, militants stormed the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok in the northern state of Borno.

They loaded scores of schoolgirls onto their trucks and drove away unhindered.

Earlier the same day, a car park bombing in the capital Abuja killed 75 people and wounded 134 others.

"Is this the time for dancing?" Soyinka, a literary giant and social critic who won the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature, asked at a book fair held in Port Harcourt, provincial capital of Rivers State.

"We can't even be saying bring back the books now. We can only be saying bring back the girls," he said, referencing the Jonathan administration's education project dubbed "Bring Back the Book," in which Soyinka had been a leading figure.

Soyinka's comments reflect the popular sentiment among many Nigerians that the president would have been better served by avoiding political rallies during a period of national mourning.

A week after the attack, the exact number of missing schoolgirls remains dogged by controversy.

The local authorities say 129 girls went missing that night, including 52 who have since returned. Some parents, however, claim a total of 234 schoolchildren were abducted.

While the abductions were believed to have been carried out by Boko Haram, the militant group has yet to claim responsibility for them.

englishnews@aa.com.tr