Insecurity, Economic Crisis Worse Under Buhari – Soyinka

Nigeria’s economy, since Muhammadu Buhari’s assumption as president, has been characterised with “disaster”.

This was according to Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, who said this on Monday in Lagos, while addressing the second batch of beneficiaries of ‘The Cedars Institute (Lebanon) scholarship’.

The students were travelling to Lebanon for studies under the scholarship in collaboration with The Wole Soyinka Foundation.

Soyinka told the students that the Buhari regime has brought wider “yawning gaps” than seen under the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

“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,” he said.

“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.’’

Reacting to the possibility of Buhari’s return in 2019, the professor said the president shouldn’t conceive the thought of seeking re-election in the first place.

“Why are we talking about second term for heaven’s sake?” he asked, adding, “I don’t understand this. I refuse to be part of that discussion. I absolutely refuse to be part of the discussion,” Soyinka said.