NOBEL LAURETTE CALLS FOR EMERGENCY ECONOMIC SUMMIT

Professor Wole Soyinka, has asked the Federal Government of Nigeria to convene an emergency economic conference to save the nation from its current economic troubles.

Soyinka made the call in an interview with newsmen on the sideline of a private visit to the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Abuja.

He said that President Muhammadu Buhari needed to convene an emergency economic conference to provide the platform for relevant stakeholders in the economic sector to suggest the way forward.

“I agree with those who say the economy is bad (it is obvious) and I think that the President should call an emergency economic conference in which experts will be invited (such as) consumers, producers, labour union, university experts, professors and others. I think we need a rescue operation, bringing as many heads together and plotting the way forward,” he said.

“The economic condition of the nation of the people does not deteriorate overnight, something came before that deterioration. A certain prolonged and unchecked process of attrition which was neglected in the past is now knocking on the door,” he said.

The Nobel laureate observed that Nigeria’s current economic challenge was the product of bad leadership over the years, stressing the need for an emergency economic conference where experts would brainstorm on the solutions.

“The consequences of past misgovernance in other words, is what we are undergoing right now, but at the same time, we must rely on our objective economic exploits to tell the government when it is going wrong. When it is taking certain measures which might just compound the problem and in the end make the people the ultimate victims.

Professor Soyinka also asked Nigerians to be patient with the current anti-corruption crusade of President Muhamadu Buhari.