By Olawale Lamina
Professor Wole Soyinka has always been an advocate of good governance and that much was reechoed in his recent address at a public lecture in celebration of the 50th anniversary of PUNCH Nigeria Limited, the publishers of The PUNCH newspapers, including Saturday PUNCH, Sunday PUNCH, and PUNCH Sports Extra..
Then, as a Guest Speaker, the Professor of Comparative Literature had canvassed for what he called decentralization of the country to address myraids of challenges confronting the Nigeria.
His position has not changed from what it was since his return from exile after the demise of General Sanni Abacha, when he delivered a public titled ‘Redesigning a Nation.’
Long after that, some attempts were made by politicians and government of the day to give Nigeria a new constitution, based on the argument that the military bequeathed a lopsided constitution, which turned out to be a mismatch begging for amendment in a democracy.
The Poet Laurel noted that what passed for a constitutional conference afterwards was deceitful, based on the fact that it has not addressed Nigeria’s common problems of unity, fairness, justice and equitable distribution of wealth and resource control.
His audience who converged on the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, were individuals from different walks of life such as government officials, military top brass, media chiefs, captains of industry, and members of the civil society, among others. They had listened with rapt attention to a ‘sermon’ that could easily described as restating the home truth.
In the public lecture titled, ‘Recovering the Narrative’, Soyinka said decentralisation was key for Nigeria to be self-sufficient in food production.
The literary giant opined that past national conferences of Nigeria were mere distractions and charades, just as the organisers had individual selfish agendas in mind.
Recall that 2014, Nigeria’s former President, Goodluck Jonathan organised a national conference that brought together individuals from across the nation, regardless of political leanings. Consequent on that, conference debated over restructuring and made recommendations, yet to be implemented since a decade ago.
It is equally noteworthy that former President Olusegun Obasanjo also organised a national conference in 2005 aimed at restructuring the country. The report was never implemented because of Obasanjo’s third-term agenda.
Soyinka observed that because of its expediency in our national life, the word ‘restructuring’ refused to disappear, despite attempts to downplay.
Interestingly,he said some politicians from a particular section were even
afraid of restructuring as they interpreted it to mean the dissolution of the country.
Soyinka told his audience, as if to allay the fears of the antagonists of restructuring that he preferred to use expressions like reconfiguration and decentralisation.
According to him, “When the word restructuring is booted around, we often have the challenge, what do you mean by restructuring? Well, I don’t even like the word restructuring, I prefer the expressions like reconfiguration, decentralisation…And those who lead us, they recognise the necessity of it, they recognise the importance and almost the inevitability of decentralisation until they get in power.”
With the remark that politicians who once realized the need for restructuring and got to power only to start playing the Ostrich, Soyinka may have taken the present crops of leaders to task on the same subject of restructuring.
It is now left for those who have the levers of power to demonstrate commitment and align their programmes in tandem with the expectations of Nigerians in order to safe the future.
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