NOBEL Laureate Wole Soyinka has warned of an impending danger likely to grace the country if appropriate measures are not taken to curtail them.
Citing the institution of a national dialogue where citizens would be allowed to genuinely chart a way forward for the country.

He said this while speaking at a lecture organised to mark the 50th anniversary of the Nigerian Institute of Management, with the theme "Governance in the 21st Century" in Abuja.

Receiving a thunderous applause from the audience, the lecture dwelt mainly on the great potentials Nigeria possesses, its proper link with distinction of power and authority. It went further to discuss the removal of religion from governance and the removal of the country from degenerating into a "stateless" nation through the intervention of conscious people.

“Nigeria must do away with the construction of religion in its narrow, bigoted and intolerant form. This is the reason why we have a cancerous disease and aspirin is being prescribed and then elevating nepotism, religiosity and ethnicity in governance. ”

Soyinka gave dialogue preference over violence, which he said was already knocking on the door, and is likely to turn into the revolt witnessed in the northern parts of Africa and the Arab world.

Soyinka went down memory lane, talking about the Maitatsine uprising and the current Boko Haram insurgence. Both organizations trying to sanitize Islam, with Boko Haram having links to Al-Qaida.
“We have to remind those who were too young during these unfortunate uprisings of these historical upheavals for our own comparative analyses,”

“People have become impatient with the slow pace of restoration in Nigeria. A national dialogue would bring back the desired order. Let the first few days or weeks of the dialogue be rancorous. Let us pause and address the psychology of self-abasement. The Nigerian people must dialogue now. Or do you really expect elected legislators to act against their existence?

“Which is why I am saying that religion must be taken out of governance. We must reject for instance, the recent proposition to adopt the 10 Commandments as the guiding constitution in Zambia. Why must we theocraticise instead of rescuing our youth from murderous indoctrination. Religion for me remains another sprawling ground for perception. What should be taken from it are the morals and values,” he said

Speaking further, he said the theme of the conference came timely due to the fact that governance had taken a new course worldwide and it was left for Nigeria to chart a new course for itself now and proactively too.

“If we fail to act now, some forces will take control of the affairs of the nation for selfish reasons as Nigeria as a nation has a lot in terms of natural resources to be coveted.”

He maintained his conviction that the theme came timely because of the uprising being faced in all aspects of the nation's life and said ''if nothing is done soon, violent change might take place.''

According to Soyinka, the presidential system of government has failed Nigeria as the people in leadership “are more alien to the needs of the people now than in pre-colonial time, the status quo creates opportunity for public offers to rule without knowing or feeling the needs of the led.”

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