All Governors Should Stop Being Timid – Soyinka Appeals

Playwright and Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka has appealed to state governors to “stop being timid”, asking that they take charge of the welfare of their people.

He made this remark on Saturday at the 2021 Obafemi Awolowo Lecture, themed, ‘Whither Nigeria?’

The virtual event had in attendance prominent personalities including the former Central Bank’s Deputy Governor, Obadia Mailafia; former Secretary-General of Commonwealth, Emeka Anyaoku; former Kano Emir and former Central Bank Governor, Muhammadu Sanusi II; Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar; the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, and others.

Soyinka noted that there was a unified voice across the country on the matter of restructuring in Nigeria “in terms of governance, economic relations, security, educational policy, cultural policy, etc, requires restructuring.

READ ALSO: British Government’s Aid To Nigeria To Fall By 58% – Report

“Even the word ‘restructuring’ has been restructured in many directions, in cogent expression which will mean the same thing for everybody.

“For me, for instance, I emphasised decentralisation, reconfiguration…We all know what we have now is not working, it’s obvious and we can’t continue along the same line and say that it will work, it is sign of madness.

“I want to make a plea to all governors, stop being so timid. Push this federal envelope as far as it can go, even while we undertake the technical aspect of restructuring whether in terms of dialogue, evolving the constitution or whatever, something has to go on, after all, we’ve had so many of these confabs.

“My plea is to governors to start with: You are charged with the immediate responsibility of the welfare of your own people in whatever term and if you study the constitution carefully, I have done this with lawyers, and it seems that a lot can be done at this moment.

READ ALSO: ‘I Am A Frequent Advocate Of State Policing’ – Osinbajo

“You need a season of greater autonomy for your own states and that is what I mean by pushing the federal envelope as far as it can go even with this impossible document that we have to cease what power, what authority you can derive from the constitution.

“Consult with your lawyers, I have consulted with mine and they also expressed the view that the governors are too timid, there is too much centralised mentality embedded in their minds and they are afraid to come out of their cocoons.

“Please remember that your primary responsibility is not the centre but the people, the state. So, take in your hands any form of authority that you can even from this constitution as it stands while we are working on a more honest, a more people-oriented constitution.”