Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, says the government of president Muhammadu Buhari has failed, noting that it is incapable of solving Nigeria’s problems.
Prof. Soyinka said this when some students visited him on his 85th birthday celebration, lamenting the violence unleashed by herdsmen, the indiscriminate grazing of cattle and the destruction of farmlands.
Due to the state of the nation, he called for a National Conference to be convened, so that “we will all meet and debate everything, including the economy of this nation.”
According to him, the current challenges are beyond the capacity of the government in power, saying the national conference would address the problem for the good of all – referring to security threats posed by cattle herders.
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He said, “The problems of this nation are beyond the solution that can be offered by this government, that’s the first admission; they have to stop thinking in partisan government.
“There has always been a major problem with successive governments. It’s easier on the state level to say that a particular state is definitely doing better than another state. But the central government has failed, that’s my view in the main.
“There is a minimal level which any government which has been elected to power must achieve to be considered a true representative of the people.
“Look at what’s happening today with the cattle all over the place, that’s a security issue which should never have reached this level.
“That singular act has resulted in hundreds of people being killed, farms were taken over; it has wiped away a lot of the positive achievements of the government.”
“They need to confront this nation as a habitation of human beings where very serious issues like economy, security, health, even threats of secession come up every day and convoke at the same time, a national conference, what I call an Indaba across all section which we will all meet and debate everything, including the economy of this nation.”
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