‘The economy is bad… convene emergency conference’

February 19, 2016

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has warned Nigerians and the presidency about the state of the country’s economy.
Soyinka on Thursday, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to convene an emergency economic conference for experts to proffer solutions and alternative approaches to get Nigeria out of the present economic crisis.
He made the comments during a courtesy call on the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Abuja.

“I agree with those who say the economy is bad. It is obvious and it is so bad. I think the Presidency should call an emergency economic conference where experts will be enlightened.”
“We really need an emergency economic conference, bringing experts together to march the nation forward. I think the economy is not encouraging. Quite frankly, I think most economists will agree with this.”
The Nobel laureate also inferred that the recovery process of the Nigerian economy will be slow and painful.

“Don’t wait to see a bonanza economy in the next few months to a year. Recovery is going to take time. But at the same time, we have to rely on the objective analysis of experts to tell the government when it gets bad, which might compound the problem and ultimately left the people as victims.”

Speaking on the performance of the All Progressives Congress-led federal government, Soyinka said Nigerians need to be ‘a bit more patient to see what the administration will do’.
He said: “My attitude to the performance of the present administration is that the rule of the law should be followed. I belong to any government which is very patient to getting results. I have a very clear idea of governance tempo.”

“If that goal is attained by constitutional means, if nothing else, it would have moved this nation forward. The tempo of motion, for me is very reasonable. For me, I would say more than reasonable. But on the human right side, we have to watch very carefully to see if that can be achieved without forfeiting the fundamental human rights of people, which form the basis we derive from citizenship.”

“I will say, while the human right is respected, governance should move on, which I believe most Nigerians approve. What is going on now is an exposure of open robbery in their faces, while the government should damn the consequences of its action, with ethical rigour without minding whose ox is gored.”
“Government, for me, is a very complicated matter and there is a lot of debris to be cleared. Maybe, we need to be a little bit more patient to see what the administration will do.”