Posted by Samuel on Fri 24th May, 2024 - tori.ng
Speaking with Noble Nigeria, the 89-year-old Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist, observed that for Nigeria to move forward, the Constitution has to be rewritten to address all this and other challenges threatening the fabric of the nation.
Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has expressed concern over the pervasive impunity in Nigeria, highlighting that individuals implicated in corruption cases are now prominent figures dominating the nation's political scene, instead of facing trial as expected.
Speaking with Noble Nigeria, the 89-year-old Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist, observed that for Nigeria to move forward, the Constitution has to be rewritten to address all this and other challenges threatening the fabric of the nation.
When asked about the way forward to the current economic, socio-political, and socio-cultural problems, he said that Nigerians have to sit down and rewrite the constitution on how to live together in peace.
He said: "First thing if we got to cure the culture of impunity, there are people in high positions today, in the legislative houses that are holding key positions in the committees of the legislative houses who are supposed to be on trial.
“Even the judiciary which comes under criticism as well; even the judiciary is often hampered by the technicalities which are used to postpone the day of judgement. This is a fact and that gives these criminals the opportunity to aspire and to obtain high positions of protection or immunity from prosecution and so we have a backlog of reckoning.
"Those who are supposed to be going to court on serious charges that have been levelled against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), they are dominating the political scene."
He insisted that "we got to find a way of dealing with them critically and rigorously."