President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been advised by Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka to make devolution of power his administration’s priority.
Soyinka, who again accused Labour Party (LP) vice-presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, of denigrating the nation’s judiciary, also said he would want a total reinforcement of the civil society. And there should be devolution of power to arms of government, states and local governments.
He spoke while featuring on Arise TV News Morning Belt programme.
The eminent playwright said: “Decentralisation, that is all I want out of the incoming government. Whichever it is, let us have a genuine, not rhetorical, but a genuine, practical, detailed decentralisation.
“The real devolution of power, more devolution of power to the various arms, various tiers of government, state, local governments, the reinforcement of civil entity, civil society, in the various groupings, that is the kind of structure which I want. You can summarise it in that one word, decentralisation.”
Prof. Soyinka, 88, also said that before the February 25 presidential election, he warned LP presidential candidate Peter Obi, that Obidients could make him lose the poll.
“My rejection of fascism is nothing new. On three occasions, I was able to send a message to Peter Obi that, if he lost the election, it would be his followers who lost it for him, “ Soyinka stated.
On Baba-Ahmed’s controversial television interview, he said: “I’ve never heard anyone threaten the judiciary on TV the way Datti did.”
Soyinka also denounced a viral social media post which claimed he endorsed a presidential candidate in the run-up to the election.