Prof. Wole Soyinka, says Nigeria must restructure to move forward and overcome its current challenges.
The Nobel Laureate disclosed this on Thursday at the Punch Nigeria Ltd 50th Anniversary Lecture titled “Recovering the Narrative at Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Soyinka spoke a day after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said he needed time to restructure the country.
President Tinubu had told Afenifere leader, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, during a visit to Ondo state on Wednesday that the country needed to be fixed first before restructuring.
Tinubu had been a frontline advocate of restructuring as opposition leader for many years.
The former Lagos state governor has suddenly developed cold feet since he became president, those watching his administration said, wondering whether the pecks of office has made him changed his mind.
Speaking today on the issue, Soyinka stated that it would amount to “taking” Nigerians for “a ride” the refusal to restructure the country.
Soyinka demand for an immediate action to restructure the country, adding it is necessary for “nation being.”
According to him: “It is about time that leaders of these nation stopped taking us for a ride.
“Do we actually have to go through surrogates, dismantling empires in order to come to fulfilment.
“Decentralise simply so that government can come closer to the people and productivity ability manifested as a product of citizens, not simply as a manna from heaven,
“Let me state quite clearly that no one has ever claimed that fecentralisation – a precise word I personally prefer – will end hunger in the land or terminate religious conflicts and other forms of national malaise, no.
“We simply insist that this is central to the incomplete mission of – nation-being.
”it is essential to activities of basic existence such as food production, and access to such products. Palliatives remain crude, short term, stop- gap measures only,” he said.
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