Nigeria’s problems have overwhelmed Buhari — Soyinka

 

NOBEL laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, on Sunday said the myriads of problems confronting Nigeria have overwhelmed President Muhammadu Buhari, adding that the present administration could not tackle the multifarious challenges.

He also said the carelessness and negligence of the Federal Government had cost the country great fortune.

Soyinka, who clocked 85 years on Saturday, said this while hosting 85 pupils drawn from the six geopolitical zones of the country to mark his birthday at his Ijegba home in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

He noted that the inability of the administration to tackle the menace of the herdsmen had wiped away all the achievements so far recorded by it.

Soyinka said many lives had been lost due to the carelessness of the government, telling the pupils that “look at what is happening with the cattle all over the place. That is a security issue which should never have reached this level.

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“I am sure that carelessness and single act which has resulted in hundreds of people being killed in their farms and their farms taken over; it has wiped away a lot of the positive achievements of the government.

“It is an issue that is so serious and which concerns the welfare of you and me, any carelessness or any failure is totally unforgivable and unpardonable.

“It is not that one likes to criticise for the sake of criticising, No. It is just that we believe there is a minimal level which any government elected to power must achieve to be considered a true representative of the people.”

He urged President Buhari to call for national dialogue among all the people across party lines.

“If you agree, first of all, the problems of this nation are completely beyond it, that is the first admission. We should stop thinking in terms of partisan government. The president must form, in my view, a government called across political parties and need to forget their allegiances.

“The ingredients that threaten succession of government are being experienced everyday. I believe very frankly that the problems of this nation are beyond the solution that can be offered by this government,” he said.