Witness narrates how Ex-HoS, allies diverted public funds to private companies in court
Restructuring: Governors are too timid to act – Soyinka
By Rasaq Adebayo
Nigeria Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has said that Nigerian Governors lack the courage and confidence needed to tackle the insecurity ravaging their individual states, saying the country needs restructuring to find solution to the menace and other challenges.
Soyinka said this on Saturday at the Obafemi Awolowo annual anniversary lecture, noting that the governors are too dependant on the federal government, taking dictate from the centre at the expenses of the people in their various states.
He said: “I have interacted with the constitution and consulted with lawyers and they agree with me that the governors are too timid. There’s too much centralised mentality embedded in their minds and they are afraid to come out of their cocoon.
“Their primary responsibility is not to the centre, but to their people.”
Soyinka tasked the state governors to seek more authority from the constitution to enable them to deliver and enhance the fortunes of their people.
He attributed state governors’ inability to maximally deliver on their mandates to much-centralised mentality embedded in their minds.
Soyinka, who was the chairman of the occasion, called for thorough restructuring of the country.
Emphasising the need to restructure the country, he stated that whoever thinks or acts contrary is the enemy of the people and is only being deceitful.
“There is a consensus that this country, whether in terms of governance, economic relations, security, educational policy, cultural policies, requires restructuring. That is a consensus right across the board, whatever the challenges are.
“And in fact, even that word, ‘restructuring’ has been restructured in so many directions, looking for a cogent expression which will mean the same thing to everybody. To me for instance, I prefer decentralisation. Others use the word ‘reconfiguration’.
“And because of that, my position is that anyone who opens his/her mouth or puts pen to paper and says “I don’t know what they mean by restructuring”, I think dialogue is ended with that person. That is willful ignorance.
“We all know that we have now is not working. We can’t continue along the same route and say that we are working. That is a sign of madness.
“Push this federal dialogue as far as it can go even while we undertake the technical aspects of restructuring. It simply has to go on all the time.
Governors, particularly, should know that they are charged with the responsibility of their people.”
He expressed delight at the efforts of the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation in putting in the front burner, issues confronting the country, with the aim of proffering solutions to them.
He also commended the Foundation on the choice of the speaker, Mr. Odia Ofeinum, whom he described as a multi-talented person.
“He remains one of those individuals who are very passionate about issues concerning Nigeria,” Soyinka said.
