Balarabe Musa, Ikedife react
By Adetutu Folasade-Koyi, Willy Eya and Chinelo Obogo
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has opened up on his discussion with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Villa, Abuja on August 11, 2016. The meeting was scheduled as private and took place in Buhari’s office.
He arrived the Villa and went straight for the parley with the President. Thereafter, Soyinka told newsmen he discussed “national and international matters, general matters, that’s all”, and declined to give further details, but said he would hold a Press conference on the discussions. He did so at the weekend. Prominent Nigerians reacted to the interview he granted an online media
Speaking with Sahara Reporters, the professor of Comparative Literature said although he initiated the meeting with the President, the discussion centered around the Niger Delta crisis, kidnapping of the Chibok girls (Boko Haram kidnapped 219 girls from a secondary school in Chibok town, Borno State on April 14, 2014), corruption and what he described as other peripheral issues.
“I was the one who initiated the meeting…I had an appeal from the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), they were willing or close to embarking on a ceasefire, but that they needed the government to respond, in a very positive way, to meeting their grievances.
“I knew that the President had already met some of those spokespersons of the NDA, according to my information. I don’t know their names, by the way… I sent a message and President Buhari made time for us to meet.
“My position was that this was an issue that should be treated holistically. We shouldn’t wait until people take to arms in one form or the other before addressing certain social anomalies, social grievances, dissatisfaction, sense of alienation, etc. no matter what!
“My position is that the Delta insurgency and restlessness is an integral part of a certain dissatisfaction with the internal arrangements, socio-political arrangements of the nation.
“In other words, for me, I just see this as an aspect of a call for restructuring because of the peculiar history of the Delta region in relation to others, has given rise to militarism which surges again and again and again.
“So, I believe we had a very, I believe, positive discussion on that. In fact, I remember telling him that each time you say Nigeria’s sovereignty is not negotiable, you or Obasanjo or Gowon or you military people, the world will start talking to insurgents.
“You are already negotiating Nigerian sovereignty; so, let’s move away from the rhetoric and get practical. So, it (the discussion) was along those lines that we had our conversation.
“Not only, we on the Niger Delta issue, also talked about Chibok girls, on corruption, on a number of other peripheral issues…I had an interesting respondent to, shall we say, a number of issues. Naturally, the discussion was cordial, frank and I think, positive discussion that we had.
“That I didn’t want to talk to the Press before was for the fact that I called (for) that meeting for a different purpose. When I invite people, the Press for a briefing, I tell them what I want to talk about. They cannot dictate to me what I want to talk about and when I want to talk about some issues.”
On his impression of Buhari up close, Soyinka described the President as one with a good sense of humour, despite being described as taciturn.
“They say he has a taciturn…but, he must have a taciturn sense of humor which expresses itself in non-taciturn ways, let me tell you that.
“He has a sense of humour. It was not a dry meeting.”
Reacting, Second Republic governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, said: “Soyinka has always pushed the view that Nigeria should be restructured in such a way that there is ethnic sovereignty. How practicable is this? This is a country with over 400 ethnic groups, so when he is talking, he should know whom he is talking with. I agree that there is the need for restructuring of Nigeria because it is a big country with over 150 million people; we have been together for 100 years now, so, it is time to review the situation.
“One school of thought sees restructuring as the move for ethnic sovereignty, which means the break-up of Nigeria, while another idea that people propagate about restructuring is to teach the North a lesson, and this school of thought has become so powerful. Those who propose it believe that because the North is so powerful with a large land mass and huge resources, it should be feared, unless it is guided by democracy, which is quite right, he said.
Former president-general, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Dozie Ikedife said: “I agree with what Soyinka has said, even though he is not the first person to say it, including me. When things change, you must recognise the change and make adjustments. The present government came on board while preaching the message of change and the only permanent thing in life is change. If the present arrangement is no more favourable to a majority of people, then there should be a change. The United Nations, in its wisdom, allowed any indigenous group in any nation the right to self-determination, and you cannot deny anybody that right.
“In Nigeria, we are practising democracy and not dictatorship, and democracy means the respect of the opinion of majority of people. Every issue should be discussed with honesty and maturity. If you maintain a status quo adinfintio, there would be no progress. As it is, there is so much dissatisfaction, anger and feeling of disappointment among many Nigerians, and when many people are grumbling; then one must listen, Ikedife noted.
On his part, Tanko Yakassai said: “We can’t eat our cake and have it. Those who are thinking of states controlling their resources are still thinking of the time when we had three or four regions big enough to take care of their needs. The 36 states that we have now cannot meet their needs and therefore, depend on the Federation Account.
“Now, the hurdle in front of those who are fighting for restructuring is what to do with the governors. The influence of the governors on the state legislators is so enormous and to restructure Nigeria, the President may need the legislators for the powers to do that. The President has no power whatsoever, because as far as that is concerned, the President is just like you and me. He can only propose a bill to the National Assembly, but the passage depends on the National and state Assemblies because it will amount to changing the constitution,” he said.