i'm lewis vaughan jones with bbc news. our top story: there's been worldwide condemnation of the bomb attacks on churches and hotels in sri lanka, which left more than 200 people dead. the prime minister, ranil wickremesinghe, said the attacks would be fully investigated. but a government minister told the bbc that police were briefed about the threat ten days ago but the prime minister wasn't informed. comedian volodymyr zelensky has won a landslide victory in ukraine's presidential election. full results are not yet in, but exit polls show he's won about 70 per cent of the vote. and this story is trending on bbc.com. queen elizabeth has celebrated her 93rd birthday. the world's longest reigning living monarch attended the traditional easter service at windsor castle, accompanied by members of her family, including prince william and prince harry. now on bbc news it's hardtalk.

welcome to hardtalk. he is one of the giants of african and world literature, and he is also a passionate advocate and campaigner for human rights. my guest is the nobel literature laureate, nigerian professor wole soyinka. his country held a general election in february, which saw the incumbent muhammadu buhari re—elected as president. does wole soyinka believe that nigeria is on the right path, and as africa's most populous nation, can it lead to the continent and make this a century of the africans?

professor wole soyinka, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. has your generation of older nigerians failed the people? i believe so, yes. no question at all in my mind. really? why? | question at all in my mind. really? why? i compare today with the dreams, the aspirations we had when we all rushed home after our studies abroad. we considered ourselves the renaissance people, going to lift the continent to world standards, competitive anywhere. it hasn't happened. we have just seen competitive anywhere. it hasn't happened. we havejust seen in competitive anywhere. it hasn't happened. we have just seen in the february elections, two opponents, the incumbent muhammadu buhari, and his opponent abubakar. both in their

mid— 70s. are they also failing the people in your opinion? it was one of the most depressing elections we have been through. it wasn't impossible, iam have been through. it wasn't impossible, i am talking to myself, it wasn't possible for me to make a choice, for the simple reason that the two candidates were not — they both had histories, one immediate and one past, which made one look for alternatives, yes. but you had backed general muhammadu buhari in the past, saying he was a born democrat even though he is a military man. he didn't really wind the first election, he won by default. it was impossible to continue with jonathan default. it was impossible to continue withjonathan back in 2015, and as it did happen, yes i did use that expression "born—again democrat". when someone competes in elections three or four times and

persists, he must believe in democracy. one nigerian writer has said that three decades of military dictatorship have given way to a listless democracy where corruption rules and apathy spreads. no amount of noise from chattering classes seems to reach the politicians. how could you, even if he thought he was the best of about a bad lot, have backed somebody who was a military person? first of all, nigeria is not peculiar in that respect. we have had examples of many military people, i think for instance of traore. so the transition is not impossible. and the fact that nigerians have shown the military what a big, nigerians have shown the military whata big, huge nigerians have shown the military what a big, huge failure they were, makes it possible for one to identify the possible exceptions

when they seem to behave like democrats. in any case, i keep emphasising that it wasn't — nigerians had a very difficult choice, and as i said it was between the devil in the deep blue sea. you have actually been imprisoned by the military in the 1960s, you spent 22 months in prison, most of it in solitary confinement, which gave you a great deal of time for reflection on the state of the nation and so on. you even wrote your memoirs on lavatory paper. what was that time like for you? well, the solitary confinement, i was deprived of books, writing material, company, companionship, and so i had to create my world myself, and so toilet paper became the template on which i could create that micro world in which i lived in solitary. how did you manage to get enough

lavatory paper? well, they supplied toilet paper, they were very generous. and a pen? no, i made my own pen, i made my own ink, which i called shoe inc, from all kinds of material. what kinds of things were you writing? mostly short pieces of poetry. how did you manage to get it out and publish it subsequently? 0lder publishing, yes, two phases. some of it i did get out. the prisoner generally is one of the most cunning creatures anyone could possibly encounter. you become very inventive, very innovative, and after a while you will find a way of breaking through certain barriers. for instance, at one stage i actually was able to have a book smuggled to me, so it wasn't totally

bleak. but everything had to be hidden. you say now that nigeria desperately needs an idealist who can build a team. just tell those old fogies to take a rest, you say to the youth, don't sit there grumbling, mobilise. do you believe that salvation for nigeria lies in the hands of the young?” that salvation for nigeria lies in the hands of the young? i want us to define young very carefully. i am talking about young minds. there are some young people who are very old, who in fact are compromised worse than even the rulers. i am talking about those with a fresh vision, those who feel ashamed of what nigeria is today, who are not complacent, and who have travelled the world a bit and seen how things are done, achieved in other places, and analyse the problems of nigeria and analyse the problems of nigeria and are not content to continue with

the old methods of governance, principal, who have their priorities right. how do they get power? well, let's look at the last elections, when we started encouraging the" young" people to come out. there was one person spearheading that movement and they could have come up with a consensus candidate, but the movement unfortunately — your question is a very good one — one of the old fogies hijacked the movement because he wanted to be the head of government. it is notjust about jostling ambitions, is it, because one person from the centre for democracy says "money is the defining issue of the elections. no money no contest, no money no office". you have to have a lot of funds to stand as a candidate in

nigerian elections, a minimum of about $35,000, and that is not possible really. the average salary is what, $2000 per year? possible really. the average salary is what, $2000 peryear? can possible really. the average salary is what, $2000 per year? can they get through? there was a candidate in the north, and he rode bicycles. he went campaigning door—to—door on a bicycle. 0utside nigeria, there is the case of president lula, who has some problems at the moment. the case of president lula, who has some problems at the momentm brazil, the former president of brazil? he said, my name is lula, this is my vision, and he went on and on and eventually he actually won the election, he became president. if it could be done in brazil, i said to them, why can you

not do it here. you mentioned a former president of brazil, lula, but he is now in brazil, behind bars for corruption. and that is the point, isn't it, that one civil society activist in the drc says" how do you maintain that moral high ground, because you can't romanticise people with the right ideas, the youth, can you? " 0ften they get into power and just behave like everyone else. but isn't that a risk one takes with every election? anywhere in the world? you have to ta ke anywhere in the world? you have to take risks, and if that fails, if it doesn't work, then again you move on. in the end, democracy is a continuing process, notjust one election alone, a continuing process. do you think the picture overall in africa is not bad? a

south african analyst says this is something to be wildly optimistic about, the fact that there are young activists all over the continent travelling ageing leaders. activists all over the continent travelling ageing leaderslj activists all over the continent travelling ageing leaders. i always avoid that word, optimistic, no. i am very pragmatic, at least as far as politics are concerned. if the present political dispensation is working then i have no problem, i continue with my literature and my workshops, et cetera. but if it is unacceptable, look at individuals, look at their track record, and whether in politics or in professions or institutions, and come up, professions or institutions, and come up, agree among yourselves professions or institutions, and come up, agree among yourselves on a consensus candidate. and we will back you. unfortunately, as i said, that movement, which was led by a lawyer, a former veteran activist,

abubakar, made the mistake of going to see the blessing of one of the old fogies, who jumped to see the blessing of one of the old fogies, whojumped on to see the blessing of one of the old fogies, who jumped on the bandwagon, took the reins and crashed. you say muhammadu buhari has failed, but you said that some of the corruption that he has made his signature policy, fighting corruption, and he has moved towards economic development more. that started a lot of discussion in nigeria. what should one emphasise. where do you stand on that? let's accept there will be some pilfering going on, but let's focus on lifting as many people as we can out of poverty, because after all nigeria has more people living in poverty than any other country in the world. now we get to the large problems, and the heart of it. indisputably we have this issue of corruption, it is

humongous. frankly, idespise have this issue of corruption, it is humongous. frankly, i despise those who try to trivialise it in nigeria simply because you don't like the face of the man who is behind it. or he has failed another certain respects. but it is no longer business as usual in nigeria. you have bankers who are on trial, legislators who are on trial, former governors, who normally would step out of office but were grabbed by anticorruption agencies. it is a change as far as corruption is concerned. by ticking the box for president muhammadu buhari? yes, yes, no, on that issue, corruption as far as yes, no, on that issue, corruption as faras i'm yes, no, on that issue, corruption as far as i'm concerned, it has got to pass. the younger, the new generation, has to be made to understand that this country is there is and they simply must wipe out the deficit of former

leadership. take for instance boko haram. if action had been taken at the very beginning, and by the beginning i'm not talking about the reign ofjonathan — when the first governor decided to make his state a theocratic state, that is when action should have been taken. the president of the time compromised because he was ambitious and he needed the support of that governor, and so one state after the other, and so one state after the other, and when you start operating a theocracy movement will get up and say, you are not wholly enough. they begin by killing those who don't belong to the faith, and then he turned on even his own, his call believers —— holy. then he turned on his own and said you were not wholly

enough, i will kill you. that is what happened with boko haram. at one time, he said any attack on boko haram is an attack on the north, and he barely escaped death. leaders shouldn't wait for things to happen to them personally. wright ——do you leave what president bihari has done? buhari made the same mistake of a slope response. —— buhari. is that the problems we have had between the farmers and the herdsmen which have led to scores of deaths? allan president buhari has failed. does make he has failed. he was apathetic. i have got to ask you about literature because of course you will awarded the nobel prize for literature in 1986 so although you area literature in 1986 so although you are a great campaigner for literature in 1986 so although you are a great campaignerfor human rights and civil rights and civic

rights and civil rights and civic rights and civil rights and civic rights and so on, you are obviously amount of culture, a man of letters and soi amount of culture, a man of letters and so i want to know where you stand on this debate amongst african writers which is being bubbling for some time, about the language in which you write. you write mostly in english. is that something you defend? mostly in english. english happens to be the language of love it -- happens to be the language of love it —— nigeria. how many languages do we have? 0ver it —— nigeria. how many languages do we have? over 300. and it —— nigeria. how many languages do we have? 0ver300. and i'm it —— nigeria. how many languages do we have? over 300. and i'm not talking about dialects, i'm talking about languages. and you want to make a country out of that, you've got to settle on a means of communication which is common to everyone. i have advocated, by the way, africa having a common language. at the writers of the african peoples, we will work towards making swahili acceptable as the language... which is the

language spoken mostly in east africa. you have brought up a stack —— east africa and a known writer says he is very troubled by the fact that he wrote in english and he says it is the intellectuals who are responsible for advancing their language. when an intellectual abandons it to write in another language, it leaves his language with one less mind. so he's made a real effort to write in his native... i want the people to read me. i want a lot of people to read me. i want a lot of people to read me. what is the language of coup d'etat, to for instance? when we wa ke d'etat, to for instance? when we wake up, fellow countrymen, we are here, we're back, we speak in english. queens english or broken english. queens english or broken english. so we inherited, u nfortu nately, english. so we inherited, unfortunately, the moment the imperialists, the colonialists, came

to the african continent, they impose certain structures, governance, social, economic languages that make economic, languages that make economic, language is simply one of those structures they imposed. when we say we wa nt structures they imposed. when we say we want our independence and we want a sense of single nationality. if you try to impose additional language of nigeria, you have another civil war. you know that. yeah, but do you accept what this writer says that the language of the coloniser was based on the death of the language of the colonised. do you accept that? that you view champion english the way you do because you say it is the lingua franca, it means the death of other languages? english for me isjust franca, it means the death of other languages? english for me is just a tool. it's a communication tool. when we were running the writers of the african people, for instance, we had a policy among ourselves that we must reserve all translation rights

for the african continent so that all literature written in the colonial languages, portuguese, french and so on, will be translated into african languages. this is one of the ways we try to cope with this legacy which we have. which is a bit troubling but for me, i don't suffer the kind of anguish which this other writer appears to suffer. would you be sorry if it disappeared as a language? no. you wouldn't be happy? i can't even conceive it. certainly i write a lot of my songs for my plays in that language. i think a lot in that language and i translate from that language into english to make the work accessible, not only do nigerians but to africans and also africans of the day after a. have occurred to me is not limited to the continent. you know, we also have africans in the caribbean, in

the united states. we have nigerians evenin the united states. we have nigerians even in lapland. assure, the deus bra is very extensive all over the place. but when it comes to success as you have enjoyed, what do you think about the nigerian who says success for an african writer still depends on the west. we asked only telling the stories that foreigners allow us to tell. —— diaspora. telling the stories that foreigners allow us to tell. —— diasporalj don't agree with that. i have read science fiction written by africans so you might as well say why should an african start writing science fiction? that's where his imagination leads him. you wrote a bookin imagination leads him. you wrote a book in which you said you were fed up book in which you said you were fed up about the comments people have made to you over the years about africa. what type of comments are you talking about? it's not an account. i mentioned it as an unlimited ball lapse in the

mentality of people outside africa. soi mentality of people outside africa. so i now wrote an incident about a young man who said it is unbelievable, i couldn't believe, he said... who was he, young men in germany? in germany. he said you africans, you are inferior. if you are not something inferior about you, you wouldn't be enslaved so easily. it was... i couldn't believe that people were still saying that in this century. so it was not that provocation, no, i've always written about african culture, i've lectured, i've held workshops and so on and so forth but it is important for people to know that that kind of mentality also still exists. why do you think that kind of attitude towards africans still persist? does it just towards africans still persist? does itjust boil down to racism? well,

wrong values, religious imperialism for instance. 0nce wrong values, religious imperialism for instance. once you've adopted christianity, for instance, the baggage, the cultural baggage that goes with it, expect the indigenous. when you have accepted islam, for instance, you forget your own culture, your own history. you try to behave like arabs because arabs are the comic shall we say, custodians basically, of islam. and so it is mimicked conduct. this is one of the reasons i give those lectures which went into that volume called 0f lectures which went into that volume called of africa. i say please, let us take ourselves back, what were we before islam and christianity and why did we allow the custodians of those two languages to enslave us so

easily. there is arab and christian enslavement of africa and sometimes we forget that. africa has a very young population, the youngest in the world. and therefore, people say, let's have confidence in the youth of africa. there is only one way for them to go and that is up. do you think nigeria has the wherewithal to lead africa in the 21st—ce ntu ry wherewithal to lead africa in the 21st—century to make this the century of the african? absolutely, absolutely, and this is what hurts. i'm tired of it being a country of potential. it's about time we ma nifested potential. it's about time we manifested that potential. in the act in productivity. everywhere i travel i meet nigerians. they are considered some of the finest surgeons in the world. you find them enabled derby, in dubai. literature, for instance. look at the young

women, especially, who are producing some of the finest modern literature. engineers. nigerians, even the underworld salutes nigerian crooks. because the intelligence they bring to bear. 0n crooks. because the intelligence they bring to bear. on that particular line of human productivity, is a challenge to even the italian mafia. so this potential can be harnessed. leadership is the problem. and the leaders squat on this magnificent, this treasure house, this heritage, they squat on it, a busted eyes it, they exploit it, a busted eyes it, they exploit it for themselves and they do not allow new ideas to come up. ———— they bastardise it. thank you for coming on hardtalk. thank you very

much indeed. hello. there are weather changes on the way this week, but we're going to see out the last day of this holiday weekend with plenty more sunshine and warmth. and what a weekend it's been! good friday, 2a degrees. saturday, 25.5. and then, for easter sunday, in the sunshine it was the warmest easter sunday on record in scotland, northern ireland and in wales. the record in england, 25.3, still stands. it came close to that, just topping out at 24.6 at wesley in surrey. but, as i indicated earlier, another fine day on the way. now, the satellite pictures showed on easter sunday there was some cloud north—west scotland, the western side of northern ireland. that has actually pulled away, and we are starting today dry and clear across the bulk of the uk.

a little chillier than this in some rural parts of central and eastern england, maybe a little misty in one or two spots, but it's a sunnier day in north—west scotland, the northern and western isles, in the western side of northern ireland, where you have had a few of cloud. but there will be high cloud spilling northwards through much of england and wales, the sun will be hazy, there will be more cloud around in recent days here. there may be a late shower somewhere in south—west england and south wales, especially on the hills, very isolated. temperatures — high—teens, low—20s, feeling every bit as one, maybe mid—20s in the warm spots, it could be the warmest easter monday on record so we will keep you updated on that. it will be breezier, mind you. 0n through monday night into tuesday, well, a lot of high cloud around, still the chance for a few showers, the channel islands, south—west england, south wales and temperatures where they have been chilly in recent nights will be higher. big picture for tuesday, drifting up from the south and along with the high cloud a bit of saharan dust as well, so cameras at the ready,

there could be some fiery looking sunrises and sunsets to be watched on tuesday, and maybe for a few days beyond as well. a lot of fine weather again on tuesday. it is hazy sunshine. still fairly breezy out there. and still, the further west you are, you could pick up one or two showers as the day goes on. it's still very warm, though temperatures may have come down a degree also on where they have been, and that is a process that accelerates from mid—week. losing the warmth, low pressure setting up as it becomes unsettled and the cooler air moves in, particularly at the end of the week and into next weekend. so, gradually turning cooler as the week goes on. you can see this process is under way here. we are changing from sunshine to increasing chances of wet weather, not necessarily a bad thing on the gardens and the fields. so, the cooling trend, temperatures may be below average by next weekend, some showers, even some thunderstorms, spreading northwards. bye— bye.

i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. the headlines: grief and shock across sri lanka as a wave of bomb attacks on churches and hotels leaves more than two hundred dead. the islands deadliest violence in a decade. translation: i heard the explosion and then the roof fell on us. we took the children and ran out from the rear door. but when i came to the hospital i saw my brother—in—law and son on the ground. a government minister tells the bbc police were briefed about the threat ten days ago, but the prime minister wasn't told. the million—dollar question was, this was sent on the 11th of april