Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on Thursday, called on Federal Government of Nigeria to declare a state of emergency on security in the country.

Soyinka, who stated this in Akure, the Ondo State capital, during the conference of the Second International Conference of the Fagunwa Study Group, said the security situation had been a concern to all patriotic Nigerians.

He frowned on the spate of killings, kidnapping, armed robbery, herdsmen invasion and banditry across the country, and said measures to prevent unnecessary killings should be put in place, describing the development as a calamity across the country.

Soyinka said “as regards the insecurity in the south west, there is an emergency. There should be a declaration of security emergency throughout the land and measures should be taken accordingly.

“There are many directions of security lapses, you know it here especially in Ondo State; it is a calamity throughout the whole nation. There is an emergency.”

Speaking during the opening ceremony of the event with the theme: “Wole Soyinka, D. O. Fagunwa and the Yoruba Artistic heritage,” Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, noted that the gathering would afford the group the opportunity to access the nation as a country in search of a solution to its many challenges.

According to him, “for so long that our country has existed, the ambition of peace, progress and prosperity it promised to achieve is also the greatest challenge it struggles with everyday while the fact remains that a nation without a perfect understanding of its nationhood is a rudderless ship that is bound to capsize.

“For all that we know, humanity is passing through some of its trying periods. Globally, the definition of Peace, Progress, Liberty and Prosperity is interrogating the best of our civilisation today.

“From the leadership crisis which torments the sanest of public organisations to the fearful response of a traumatised followership, the narrative is clear, we must check and recheck the path on which we tread.

“In Africa, the challenge has moved largely from the legitimacy of governance institutions to its responsiveness to the need for a coordinated plan for Cultural Integration, Economic Development and general Human Capital Development.

“In the farther world, the challenge is a deeper fragmentation of the mind, loneliness and unending cultural crisis of confidence. Today murder, be it in the form of pogrom, carnage or infanticide or ethnic cleansing, sectarian occupation, is poking its realities into our eyes.

“But we have the capacity to rise and we are going to rise out of the rubble. I believe meetings and chat opportunities like this, apart from being a big canvas for cultural studies, is also an opportunity to deepen critical thinking, evolve knowledge-based strategic problem-solving skills and accentuate a clear direction for Human Development.

“We cannot do less because our challenges are enormous, the grounds are slippery and the clock ticks by each second. We believe in your gathering and our hope rests in the applications of your conclusions to the process of education and intellectual armament of our people,” Akeredolu said. (Nigerian Tribune)

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