Nigerian playwright and Nobel Prize winner, Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka, has lamented over the state of the nation.
According to him, the nation is in a serious mess.
Soyinka said this at a media briefing held at the Freedom Park in Lagos on Thursday, October 28.
He stated that the Nigerian government lacks a ‘holistic’ solution to their problems, hence the present state.
The Nobel laureate emphasised on solidarity, using Sudan as an example to illustrate how the people came together to reject the mismanagement of the government.
He said, “We’re in a mess. This country is in a mess. It is disintegrating before our very eyes. The government is floundering.
“It’s not merely that the government is devoid of a holistic solution, the problem really is that this government does not have a holistic grasp of the problems of the nation and the environment in which we live and the time also in which we live in.
“After all, look at Sudan right now; it’s in turmoil simply because some people got up one day and decided that an arrangement come into for the governance of that nation be abrogated because they’re carrying the guns.
“And of course, the people have responded in a marvellous, united way. Doctors, workers, students, market people and the last time, the oil workers, they’ve all got up and said ‘no’.”
Soyinka said the #EndSars, which was supposed to be a movement for change, drastically went south.
“Part of the problem which we have in this nation, and which has plagued us, except for a few memorable times, is this ability to act in concert. From time to time, we have a section of the nation come together and say ‘enough; we’re human beings; we will not be treated like beasts’.
“Like #EndSARS for instance, that’s one such movement. Unfortunately, it ended somewhat tragically. But it doesn’t matter; it was a step in the right direction.
“What I’m trying to say to you is this. If we’re still looking to this government for solution, then I think we really are lost.
“We’ve got to find a way of piling up pressure to enable us to meet as equal beings across the entire nation for a national indaba, involving the various professions, group interests, ethnic groups — any productive sector of this nation should be encouraged to come together and really debate the future of this nation.
“We’re going along piecemeal solutions all the time. One way or the other, one misses that sense of a grasp of the totality and understanding of the connection of one part of governance, one part of civic society to the others,” Soyinka concluded.
