Nigeria on suicide slide, citizens have right to get off it, says Wole Soyinka

Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, on Monday said that the citizens of Nigeria have the right to exit the country if they feel that it is going on a suicide slide.

Professor Soyinka said this during an interview session he had with Arise Television where he described the country as a plane that is on a suicide slide, and that the citizens have the right to exit the plane before it nosedives.

Speaking on various issues affecting the country, Soyinka also insisted that the only way Nigeria can continue as one is to decentralise as the continued situation in the country cannot make Nigeria to stay together.

According to him: “If a plane is on a suicide slide, the people who feel that they do not deserve that kind of suicide slide have the right to say sorry, we are getting off this plane before it nosedives.”

Soyinka also said the country cannot continue as a country if it fails to decentralise, urging the government to take the issue seriously.

“Do I think Nigeria can continue as one? Not if it continues this way, not if it fails to decentralise; some people call it restructuring, others use whatever word. But if Nigeria fails to decentralise, as fast as possible, manifestly and not rethorics, then Nigeria cannot stay together.

“Ex-heads of state have said it, politicians, Generals, analysts, economists, others have all said it. When sectional leaders cannot answer the people’s existential yearnings, don’t be surprised if the people start saying we want Tiv nation, we want Kanuri nation, we want Biafra nation, we want Yoruba nation, don’t be surprised to hear it. It’s because you are not being taken seriously.

“That is why people are demonstrating in the streets, that’s why they are defying threats from the police and the government.”

• Source: Tribune.