Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has lent his
voice to the growing calls for the restructuring of
the Nigerian federation, saying the sovereignty of
the nation is negotiable.
Speaking during a visit to PUNCH Place, the
corporate headquarters of PUNCH Nigeria Limited,
Kilometre 14, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ogun
State, on Tuesday, Soyinka said decentralisation of
the nation would ensure healthy rivalry among the
component units.
The laureate said it was wrong for previous
administrations in the country to say that Nigeria’s
sovereignty was non-negotiable, submitting that the
position was antithetical to development.
Soyinka added, “I am on the side of those who say
we must do everything to avoid disintegration. That
language I understand. I don’t understand (ex-
President Olusegun) Obasanjo’s language. I don’t
understand (President Muhammadu) Buhari’s
language and all their predecessors, saying the
sovereignty of this nation is non-negotiable. It’s
bloody well negotiable and we had better negotiate
it. We better negotiate it, not even at meetings, not
at conferences, but everyday in our conduct towards
one another.
“We had better understand it too that when people
are saying ‘let’s restructure’, they have better things
to do. It’s not an idle cry; it is a perennial demand.
The Pro-National Conference Organisation was
about restructuring when this same Obasanjo said it
was an act of treason for people to come together
to fashion a new constitution. Those were fighting
words; that you’re saying, ‘I commit treason
because I want to sit with my fellow citizens and
negotiate the structures of staying together’ and ask
the police to go and break it up and arrest us.
“I remember that policeman, who said if we met,
that would be treason. I wasn’t a member of
PRONACO at the time. That’s when I joined
PRONACO. If you’re saying to me, ‘I am a second-
class citizen; I cannot sit down and discuss the
articles, the protocols of staying together’ and
you’re trying to bully me, I won’t accept.”
He said Nigeria could not continue with a
centralisation policy, which encouraged what he
described as “monkey dey work, baboon dey chop”
mentality.
Soyinka said the over centralisation of government
had resulted in resentment among constituent
states, adding that the phenomenon was insulting
and promoted anti-healthy rivalry among states.
He stated, “We cannot continue to allow a
centralisation policy which makes the constituent
units of this nation resentful; they say monkey dey
work, baboon dey chop. And the idea of centralising
revenues, allocation system, whereby you dole out;
the thing is insulting and it is what I call anti-
healthy rivalry. It is against the incentives to make
states viable.”
He said the centralisation of government led to the
proliferation of states during the military era when,
according to him, a state was created because the
girlfriend of a certain military leader hailed from the
state.
He said it was high time government established
state police to check the rising security challenges
in the country, stressing that policing was more
effective when localised.
Soyinka added, “I know people get nervous about
that expression. If you go to a place like England,
you sometimes see two, three, four police (officers)
just walking casually unarmed, but they are
observing everything.
“Now, if policing is all of that, then I think the
police are more efficient if they are based within a
smaller constituency than a larger one. Within such
constituencies, the policeman virtually knows
everybody. A federal, centralised system of police
lacks that advantage.
“So, I find it very difficult to accept that people can
be nervous about the state police. State police has
been abused. Nobody is denying that; it’s historical.
Don’t tell us because we know already. But isn’t
centralised police also abused? Look at what’s
been coming out from the last elections, not just
the police, but the military.”
Condemning the killings perpetrated by Fulani
herdsmen across the country, the Professor of
Comparative Literature said the phenomenon had
become an albatross that must be tackled frontally
by the Federal Government.
Soyinka said the intrusive nature of Fulani herdsmen
was no longer a remote problem for him personally,
alleging that some Fulani herdsmen had invaded the
privacy of his residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
“It is no longer a remote problem for me. It is an
actuality,” he said, recalling that the killings carried
out by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Enugu some
months ago was mismanaged by the government.
“In Enugu, why did it take so long to investigate the
killings? It’s like the case of Ese Oruru. What is all
this? What is security for? That thing should have
been addressed immediately. (In Enugu), they
shouldn’t have waited for directives from Buhari or
anybody. This is a crime against humanity. There
should be no debate about it.
“The military should have been drafted there
immediately; the police, first of all, and the military
– if necessary. I found out that the victims were
arrested; what’s all that about? This menace is
underestimated. If they had reached my secure
place in Abeokuta, then it is no longer a remote
problem.”
He faulted the proposal to create grazing reserves
for herdsmen in the country, saying rather than do
that, ranches, where members of the public could
go to buy cows and goats, should be created.
The octogenarian said the term “grazing reserve”
would convey the meaning that government had
carved out some people’s land for herdsmen to use
for their commercial enterprise.
“The word ‘reserve’ is the problem. If there are
ranches, it doesn’t matter where they are built,
ranches are a commercial proposition, it isn’t a
Fulani issue. You can create ranches so that cows,
goats could be bought there. This shouldn’t be an
instrument of politics, race or ethnicity.
“But when you talk about reserves, it suggests that
people can bring cattle from Futa Djallon, Senegal,
and if they get here, they can get reserve. If it’s a
ranch, it’s a pure commercial proposition, you want
to trade. I will like to see these cattle people go
back to the position they were before in which there
was mutual collaboration between them and
farmers,” he said.
Soyinka called on Buhari to consider the report of
the 2014 National Conference convened during the
tenure of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan,
lamenting that the country had been moving round
in circles without direction.
“We have a habit of consigning files to the dust
shelves and then we start all over again. The
(confab) report that came under Jonathan is even
more superior to the one that I participated in as a
member of PRONACO and I think that should be
addressed seriously.
“The recommendations strike me as workable,
practical, and in fact, as answering some of the
anxieties of this nation. This is something I think
that Buhari should tackle seriously,” he said.
