Nobel
laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has expressed disgust with emerging debates on
re-election by some politicians in the country, when the current government
hasn’t even done much.
Some northern governors on the platform of APC and
some allies of President Muhammadu Buhari had on Saturday backed the President
for a second term.
The declaration came on the heels of the open
declaration of support of the Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan for the
presidential bid of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who the minister
declared as “our president in 2019”.
But Soyinka is not amused by
debates going on on the political permutations ahead of the 2019.
The Nobel laureate, while speaking on Monday, in Lagos, noted
that the current administration had barely gone halfway, wondering why people
were already planning to fill political positions.
He spoke with some
journalists after a press briefing to unveil the second batch of students
departing Nigeria for Lebanon on Tuesday for the Study Abroad In Lebanon
programme.
When asked a question on the current debate about a second
term for Buhari and if he would endorse the President for a second term, Soyinka
stated, “Why are we talking about second term for heaven’s sake? I don’t
understand this. I refuse to be part of that discussion. I absolutely refuse to
be part of the discussion.’’
On performance of the current
administration, he said there were “yawning gaps”, noting that an average
Nigerian was now less secure than he was few years ago.
He said, “Take
simple security for instance. The average citizen feels less secure now than he
did a few years ago; that is evident. When people talk about state police, there
are reasons for it. When they talk about bringing policing right down to the
community level, they know what they are talking about. This is also part and
parcel of reconstruction or reconfiguration.
“The economy, there is a big
question about it right now. Fortunately, everybody admits that we went through
a very bad patch. Right now, it is a question of have we come out of it or not
or there is no question at all.
“The past few years have been years of
real internal economic disaster for the average citizen.’’
