Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has warned that except the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government changes its style, Nigeria may be heading towards collective suicide.
His words: “The ongoing governance posture of aggressive evasion spells only one end: collective suicide.”
Soyinka gave the warning against the backdrop of the obvious division among the different groups of the country as pointed out by former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
Obasanjo had declared that Nigeria had never been as divided as it had been under the present government.
Soyinka corroborated Obasanjo, saying there was truth in his declaration.
Pointing out that he was not a fan of Obasanjo, he said the truth in his statement borders on the increase in the level of division in the country.
Soyinka who made his position known in a statement issued and made available to FrontPage on Tuesday said Obasanjo’s position was a clear and correct reading of the current situation in the country.
He said, with the current situation, it was obvious that Nigeria was on the brink of collapse as a united entity.
He said rather than label Obasanjo as a Divider-In-Chief, the government should heed the advice and salvage the nation by convening a national conference where the nation’s survival could be addressed.
His words: “I am notoriously no fan of Olusegun Obasanjo, General, twice former president and co-architect with other past leaders of the crumbling edifice that is still generously called Nigeria. I have no reasons to change my stance on his record. Nonetheless, I embrace the responsibility of calling attention to any accurate reading of this nation from whatever source, as a contraption teetering on the very edge of total collapse. We are close to extinction as a viable comity of peoples, supposedly bound together under an equitable set of protocols of co-habitation, capable of producing its own means of existence, and devoid of a culture of sectarian privilege and will to dominate.”
He said the evidence of the accurate reading of the state of the nation by Obasanjo could be found in the fact that the government had not been able to effectively tackle the killings, ethno-religious crises and hunger among several other problems confronting the nation and its people.
“The nation is divided as never before, and this ripping division has taken place under the policies and conduct of none other than President Buhari – does that claim belong in the realms of speculation? Does anyone deny that it was this president who went to sleep while communities were consistently ravaged by cattle marauders, were raped and displaced in their thousands and turned into beggars all over the landscape? Was it a different president who, on being finally persuaded to visit a scene of carnage, had nothing more authoritative to offer than to advice the traumatised victims to learn to live peacefully with their violators? And what happened to the Police Chief who had defied orders from his Commander-in-Chief to relocate fully to the trouble spot – he came, saw, and bolted, leaving the ‘natives’ to their own devices. Any disciplinary action taken against ‘countryman’? Was it a spokesman for some ghost president who chortled in those early, yet controllable stages of now systematised mayhem, gleefully dismissed the mass burial of victims in Benue State as a “staged show” for international entertainment? Did the other half of the presidential megaphone system not follow up – or was it, precede? – with the wisdom that they, the brutalized citizenry, should learn to bow under the yoke and negotiate, since “only the living” can enjoy the dividends of legal rights?”
Soyinka said evidently, it was time for the nation to hold a survival conference to address the numerous problems confronting the nation.
Said he: “If individual voices rankle, then perhaps it is time to convoke a Nation Survival Conference. Let all sections and group interests place their cards on the table and starkly articulate what we all know and endure on a daily basis, and proffer solutions, debate moves towards a collective – rational and sincere — undertaking of nation formation. The ongoing governance posture of aggressive evasion spells only one end: collective suicide.”
