The Pacesetter Frontier Magazine

Tag: Wole soyinka

  • Difficulty accessing Nigeria’s travel Portal, Soyinka recounts

     

    Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has decried the difficult state of Nigeria’s international travel portal.

     

    This followed his failure to obtain a COVID-19 travel permit during a recent trip from France to Nigeria.

     

    Soyinka, who addressed reporters yesterday at Esther’s Revenge of Freedom Park in Lagos, recounted how he was to stay at the airport for three days awaiting clearance to return to Nigeria.

     

    He said such a development should not be allowed to continue for anyone who had taken the required vaccines.

     

    Recounting his experience about the online portal, Soyinka said he discovered that the questionnaire that precedes the process of obtaining the online permit was difficult and had left many travelers, including Nigerians, stranded at international airports.

    He said: “Neighboring countries, preferably, which do not require this secret service kind of questionnaire – because that is what I considered it… There was a flight leaving Lome at 4.30…

     

    “I said I would go and join (Sunday) Igboho wherever he is and then maybe we can come back to Nigeria together by the same way as he got out, which is why I mentioned the man in the very beginning…

     

    “Boarding began. About 20 minutes to three minutes, I told them to make sure they get me on the right flight to Lome, carried my bags and was ready to go to Lome. In the meantime, one of the supervisors had come from the office. She was in mufti and was working the phones like mad.

     

    “Suddenly, she broke into a sigh and smile of relief, came running to where I was with my bag and said: ‘Good news: you’ve been given special permission to re-enter your country.’ I don’t believe that I should require, or any Nigerian should require, special permission to enter his or her own country.

     

    “So, nobody is saying don’t take precaution because the next thing they will say is Wole Soyinka says they should let everybody in at any time. Nobody is saying you shouldn’t take the necessary precaution; other nations do it.

     

    “But I don’t believe that other nationals are just obstructed the way we are. I understand that some other Western Africa countries have similar regulations we have to go to the portal, fill this and that. But if this thing is not one hundred per cent proved,” he said.

     

    Soyinka urged the Federal Ministries of Health and Internal Affairs to provide an alternative to resolve the system error in the portal.

     

     

     

     

    Source: www.thenationonlineng.net

  • Don’t Abuse your Uniforms and trample on people’s rights before Ogun strikes you – Wole Soyinka to Amotekun corps

    Abuse your uniform, be struck by god of iron, Soyinka tells Amotekun corps

     

    Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has warned members and officers of the Amotekun Corps not to abuse their uniforms and trample on people’s rights or risk being struck by the Yoruba god of iron (Ogun).

     

    Soyinka gave the warning, yesterday, in his goodwill message at the official inauguration of the South West Joint Security Network code-named Amotekun, held at the Arcade Ground, Oke Mosan, Abeokuta.

     

    The playwright, who expressed delight at the eventual take-off of the security outfit in Ogun State, noted that it would complement efforts of the conventional security agencies, in combating crimes in the state.

     

    He charged the operatives to discharge their duties diligently, saying he and other civil society groups in the state would continue to monitor their activities.

     

    Soyinka, however, urged the police and other security agencies not to see Amotekun operatives as rivals or competitors, but partners in combating insecurity in the state.

     

    He further chided the police for failure to nab the burglars who stormed his house and carted away sensitive and valuable materials.

     

    Inaugurating the security outfit, Governor Dapo Abiodun declared that the outfit was not meant to compete with other security agencies, but to further strengthen the security apparatus of the state.

     

    He noted that the security challenges facing the state and the nation as a whole needed the cooperation of all Nigerians and security agencies.

     

    The governor said the operatives were carefully selected, trained and equipped with necessary logistics, technical backstopping and political will for effective take-off and operation, noting that the state expects nothing but the best performance from them.

     

     

     

     

     

    Source: www.sunnewsonline.com

  • Restructuring: Wole Soyinka urges the National Assembly to respond to restructuring calls

    Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, yesterday urged the National Assembly to listen to the calls for the restructuring of Nigeria and take responsibility towards the effect.

     

    Wole soyinka

    His call is in consonance with the Presidency which had repeatedly asked agitators for restructuring to channel their clamour to the National Assembly, being the representatives of the people.

     

    Such regional groups as the Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, its counterparts in Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Pan-Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, and the Middle-Belt Forum have been very vociferous in the call for the nation’s restructuring.

     

    They had often argued that the National Assembly was not better placed to restructure the country, since the 1999 constitution currently in operation and which the lawmakers are applying, was not written by the people but a select few.

     

    However, Soyinka, who spoke on AIT’s Kakaaki programme yesterday, said the National Assembly had the powers and moral authority to respond to the calls, if the Presidency was not doing so.

     

    He said: “The Presidency is saying it’s not my responsibility. On the other hand, the National Assembly keeps saying it wants the President to take action.

     

    ‘’When that happens, why doesn’t the National Assembly say ‘fine, we take this as our responsibility, we are obliged to the people who elected us here, the shout is heard, even by the deaf today that this nation must restructure, and if that has to be done through the constitution, we are now going to face this as one of our major tasks’ and then lead the Presidency on its own?

     

    “If the Presidency is not responding, then the National Assembly has the powers and the moral authority to respond to the desire of the populace.”

     

    On why the National Assembly has been reluctant to take up the leadership opportunity, Soyinka said: “Very often, they are struggling for those various committees where I think all the goodies are shared, so they are compromised.

     

    ‘’But when I speak about this, I’m not speaking about the entirety. But unfortunately, there are those who are purely for their own interest and who make compromises with the Executives simply because they want to fulfil’ their own personal interest.”

     

    Soyinka also said the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari lacked the steam to fight corruption.

     

    He said so many people ought to be in prison if the government was serious about the fight against corruption.

     

    “There are so many people who should be in prison if this government had not run out of steam, and so the system is being manipulated.

     

    “There are cases where the prosecution had reached the level where evidence had been given on governors who had been stealing and depositing in bits and pieces so as not to flout a certain regulation.

     

    “I mean cases have been taken to that level and suddenly, silence. The EFCC, which I back solidly ever since the days of Nuhu Ribadu, in all kinds of ways, we no longer know the distinguishing from rights and left,’’ he said.

     

     

     

    Source: www.vanguardngr.com