Soyinka reiterates support for FG’s anti-graft fight, seeks emergency economic conference

ABUJA (Information  Minister's Press Crew Report) –

Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka (Professor) has blamed the current economic situation in the country on years of bad governance, urging the Nigerian Government to call an emergency economic conference to address the situation.

Wole Soyinka, who spoke during a courtesy visit to the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed in his office in Abuja on Thursday 18th of February 2016, also affirmed his earlier support for the administration's fight against corruption.

"The economic condition of a nation, of a people does not deteriorate overnight. Something came before that deterioration," he said.

While responding to a question on the current state of the nation's economy, he blamed the deterioration of the economy on a prolonged and unchecked process of attrition, adding that Nigerians should not expect a quick turnaround of the economy.

"Recovery is going to take quite a while. The President should call an emergency economic conference with experts to be invited as well as consumers, producers, labour unions, university experts and professors, among others. I think, we really need an emergency economic conference, a rescue operation bringing as many heads as possible together to plot the way forward," the Nobel Laureate said.

He intensified that the Government must remain resolute in its ongoing fight against corruption, while also expressing satisfaction with both the target and tempo of motion as far as the Government's efforts are concerned. He urged the Government to pursue the anti-corruption battle within the confines of the law, saying  if that goal of fighting corruption is attained by positive means, if nothing else, the Government would have moved the nation forward by many years.

According to him, the Government must recover stolen funds and punish those who are responsible for the impoverishment of the nation, of the people and those who robbed the nation with contempt.

Speaking earlier, the Minister of Information and Culture welcomed the Nobel Laureate, saying it was a great pleasure to host him on the private visit. He inferred that with his level of fame and accomplishments, it was practically impossible for him to go to anywhere unnoticed. Lai Mohammed thanked him for making the Ministry of Information and Culture his first port of call

Source: http://fmi.gov.ng/latest/57629/