Nigerians Need to Strip Federal Government of Its Power - Wole Soyinka

 

Nigerian Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, has called for a decentralization of the Nigerian government.

According to him, the over centralisation of the Nigerian government had resulted in resentment among constituent states. He said the policy is insulting and that it promotes anti-healthy rivalry among states.

“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 according to Punch.

“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," he explained.