Soyinka reveals why Buhari’s government can’t solve Nigeria’s problems

Professor Wole Soyinka, Nigerian Nobel Laureate has expressed great concern Nigeria is fast disintegrating, lamenting that the current administration lacks the solution to the various challenges confronting the nation.

The literary legend, who spoke at a news conference held at Freedom Park, Lagos, also decried the COVID-19 protocols put in place for travelers.

The conference had as its theme: “COVID, Technology and Citizens banishment”.

“The problem here is that the government does not have a holistic grasp of the problems in Nigeria. If we are looking to this government for solution, then it means we are lost.

“We are in a mess. This country is in a mess. It is disintegrating before our very eyes. This government is floundering,”

He also lamented the political crisis rocking Anambra ahead of the November 6 election.

He said the “piecemeal approach” by the government in tackling the issues confronting the country cannot work.

Soyinka suggested that the only solution to the myriad of problems the country is facing at the moment is a Sovereign National Conference in which the various ethnic groups in the country would come together and find pathways to their mutual coexistence.

On the COID-19 protocols adopted for travelers, the Nobel Laureate said his experience in the hands of officials of the country’s Ministry of Health and Foreign Affairs on his way from Paris, France, was shambolic.

Soyinka said not only was his flight delayed because, according to them, he had to be given permit to travel citing COVID-19 reasons but was made to go through some rigorous processes such as going to the Nigerian Travel Portal permit to seek permit to travel.

But the Nobel laureate said he was at a loss about the connection between the Ministry of External Affairs and COVID-19.

The Nobel laureate said he was stressed out by the delay, and disclosed that he was finally allowed to travel due to a special treatment he was given, which he spoke vehemently against.

Soyinka was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first sub-Saharan African to be honoured in that category. Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta.