Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka on Sunday, said the carelessness and negligence of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has cost the country a great fortune.
Soyinka who clocked 85th on Saturday said this while hosting 85 pupils drawn from the six geopolitical zones to mark his birthday, at his Ijegba home, in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
He noted that the inability of this administration to tackle the menace of the herdsmen had wiped away all the achievements so far recorded by it.
Soyinka explained that so many lives had been lost due to the carelessness of government, telling the pupils that “look at what is happening today. Look at what is happening with the cattle all over the place. That is a security issue which should never have reached this level.
“I am sure that carelessness and single act which has resulted in hundreds of people been killed in the massacre, in their farms and their farms taken over; it has wiped away a lot of the positive achievements of the government.
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“It is an issue that is so serious and which concerns the welfare of you and me that any carelessness or any failure there is totally unforgivable and unpardonable.
“It is not that one like to criticise for the sake of criticising, NO!, it is just that we believe that there is a minimal level which any government which has been elected to power must achieve to be considered a true representative of the people.”
He also submitted that the multifarious challenges confronting Nigeria could not be solved by this present government, adding that the problem had overwhelmed Buhari while urging Mr. President to call for a national dialogue among all the people across party lines so as to engage in partisan government that would benefit the general public.
He said: “If you agree first of all that, the problems of this nation are completely beyond it, that is the first admission. And we should start thinking in terms of partisan government, it is going to form in my view, a government called across political parties and need to forget their allegiances and really comfort this nation as a habitation of human beings for very serious issue s like economic, health, security, etc.
“The ingredients that threaten succession of government are being experienced every day… and convoke every time a national what I called an indaba across all sections which we all meet and debate every day including the economy of this nation, I think that is the best way to go. I believe very frankly that the problems of this nation are beyond the solution that can be offered by this government.”
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