The Nobel laureate noted that the upsurge in secessionist agitation in the country in recent times stemmed from Buhari’s refusal to listen to Nigerians.
When asked the question: “Do you think Nigeria can continue as one?” Soyinka responded: “Not if it continues this way. Not if it fails to decentralise. If Nigeria fails to decentralise, and I mean to decentralise as fast as possible, manifestly and not as rhetoric, then Nigeria cannot stay together.
“Again, it is not Wole Soyinka saying this. Everybody has said it: ex-heads of state have said it; politicians have said it; analysts have said it; economists have said it, and sometimes we get tired.
“I am saying this whole nation is about to self-destruct and I am not the only one saying it, except Buhari and his government listen and take action, we would not celebrate another Democracy Day come next year.
“Take for instance the position of the Southern governors on open grazing, at least 50 per cent of a nation are saying that within this democratic dispensation we are operating, we are saying on behalf of our people, we do not want open grazing anymore and then somebody sits in Aso Rock and says to them, I am instructing my Attorney-General to dig up some kind of colonial law, which arbitrated between farmers and herders.
“This means that he is not listening to what the people are saying, he is not listening to what the government representing them is saying. When I listen to things like that, I really despair. His last interview was instructive, not that there was anything new in it, one was just hoping that this government has transcended that kind of partisan thinking.”
Commenting on the recent ban on Twitter in Nigeria, Soyinka observed that truncating the various channels of self-expression open to any polity amounted to absolutely abrogating the very essence of democracy.
“When you truncate any channel of self-expression of a people, you are literally becoming an enemy of democracy. It is so obvious and plain that I don’t even understand why one has to expatiate on it,” he said.
He noted that kidnapping had become a business in the western corridors of Lagos, Ogun, Kwara and other states but the President often come on air to act as nothing had happened. Soyinka argued that the creation of a regional security outfit, Western Nigeria Security Network codenamed Operation Amotekun, was a result of the frustration and desperation felt by the people.
Soyinka stated that it was about time the president sacked most of the people in government around him, saying they are not doing him or the nation any service.
“I think they are people who say to him the things he wants to hear, if he is depending on them, his government is doomed and so is this nation. During this so-called democracy day, it’s time for some drastic thinking on the part of his government.”
Culled from the Guardian News Nigeria