Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has said that national unity under President Muhammadu Buhari is an unattainable pipe dream.
Soyinka spoke at the weekend in Abuja during a book reading and signing of two of his books titled Trumpism in Academe and Chronicles of the Happiest People on Earth.
Soyinka’s stance was in response to a question by former Imo State Governor and serving Senator, Rochas Okorocha, who asked the Nobel laureate if he could come up with a Nigerian narrative which would elicit patriotism and inspire national unity.
Soyinka said no narrative could unite Nigerians without restitution and justice.
He lamented that the country had lost another propitious opportunity to unite as President Buhari had failed to utilize the populist crest which brought him into office in 2015.
His words: “We had a critical moment and we lost that moment. The moment when this country could have come together; and the sense of oneness, belonging. That vision of oneness. We lost that moment. There has been more than one moment and we lost the moment. Will another one come? I don’t know. Right now I don’t see it under this government quite frankly. There is a failure, a systemic failure in present governance and I don’t know who can put it together. These days, I try to go some days without reading the newspapers. It is so depressing.”
Soyinka stated that it was wrong of the government to continue to say that the country’s unity was non-negotiable.
However, he expressed his personal conviction that Nigeria should not break up.
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