SAN FRANCISCO, August 09, (THEWILL) – Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka Soyinka, has called for declaration of state of emergency due to the security challenges in the South West Zone.
Soyinka made the call on Thursday in Akure on the sidelines of the D.O Fagunwa Study Group International Conference held to celebrate his 85th birthday.
The literary giant said that the most appropriate measure to take in view of the insecurity that had pervaded the whole of the South West was to declare a state of emergency across the region.
“As regards the insecurity in the South West, there is an emergency. There should be a declaration of security emergency through out the land and measures taken accordingly.
“There are many directions of security lapses, you know it here, especially in Ondo State, it is a calamity through out the whole nation. There is an emergency,” he said.
The first African Nobel Laureate said the governors, especially those in the South West geo-political zone, must work assiduously toward tackling the menace of insecurity.
Soyinka, however, expressed gratitude to Ondo State Government for celebrating his 85th birthday and the completion of the ‘Dome’ which was meant to celebrate art and culture.
Gov. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu said the nation had allowed unreasonable competition, ethnicism, tribalism, corruption, political and economic ownership of the nation to slow down the pace of self-realisation.
According to Akeredolu, in Africa, the challenge has moved largely from the legitimacy of governance institutions to its responsiveness to the need for a coordinated plan for cultural integration, economic development and general human capital development.
Akeredolu described Soyinka as a first class academic, playwright, poet, novelist, and great human condition activist.
He said that Soyinka’s life was a lesson for public office holders because he had elevated the art of partisan living as the biggest ideal of social reclamation.
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