Nigeria:Soyinka Loses Hope; Says President Buhari Can’t Solve Nigeria’s Problems

By Akinwale Kasali

Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has, finally, conceded that President Muhammadu Buhari has no solution to the numerous challenges bedeviling the nation.

The Ogun State born poet said Nigeria is fast disintegrating, lamenting that the current administration lacks the solution to the various challenges confronting the nation.

Soyinka, a critic of every Government of Nigeria, was one of those who rooted for a Buhari Presidency in 2015.

Speaking at a news conference held at Freedom Park, Lagos, he decried the COVID-19 protocols put in place for travelers.

The conference had as its theme: “COVID, Technology and Citizens banishment”.

Soyinka said the problem here is that the Government does not have a holistic grasp of the problems in Nigeria.

“If we are looking to this Government for solution, then it means we are lost.

“We are in a mess. This country is in a mess. It is disintegrating before our very eyes. This Government is floundering”, he said.

He lamented the political crisis rocking Anambra State ahead of the November 6 election, where killings, kidnapping, unholy politicking has taken center stage leading to chaos.

He said the “piecemeal approach” by the Government in tackling the issues confronting the country cannot work.

Soyinka suggested that the only solution to the myriad of problems the country is facing at the moment is a Sovereign National Conference in which the various ethnic groups in the country would come together and find pathways to their mutual coexistence.

As regards the COID-19 protocols adopted for travelers, the Nobel Laureate said his experience in the hands of officials of the country’s Ministry of Health and Foreign Affairs on his way from Paris, France, was shambolic.

He narrated his ordeal, saying that not only was his flight delayed because, according to them, he had to be given permit to travel citing COVID-19 reasons but was made to go through some rigorous processes such as going to the Nigerian Travel Portal permit to seek permit to travel.

But the Nobel laureate said he was at a loss about the connection between the Ministry of External Affairs and COVID-19.

He said he was stressed out by the delay, and disclosed that he was finally allowed to travel due to a special treatment he was given, which he spoke vehemently against.