Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has reiterated his stance on restructuring Nigeria insisting that the country cannot work under the current system of government.
The African literary giant stated this at the 2021 Obafemi Awolowo Lecture titled, ‘Whither Nigeria?’ which was organised by the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation.
Soyinka, who emphasised decentralisation of power and governance, cited the current security challenges as one of the reasons Nigeria needed to be restructured.
“There is a consensus that this country whether in terms of governance, economic relations, security, educational policy, cultural policy, etc, requires restructuring.
“Even the word ‘restructuring’ has been restructured in many directions, in cogent expression which will mean the same thing for everybody.
“For me, for instance, I emphasised decentralisation, reconfiguration. We all know what we have now is not working, it’s obvious and we can’t continue along the same line and say that it will work, it is sign of madness,” Soyinka said.
The revered author had in January 2021, urged the National Assembly to listen to calls for the restructuring of Nigeria, while lamenting the state of corruption in the country.
He explained that the lawmakers had the powers and moral authority to respond to the calls if the Presidency is ready to take action on the matter.