Soyinka said this while speaking on "The quest for justice, tolerance and non-violent change" at a presentation highlighting Dr Martin Luther King jr and the American civil rights movement, organised by the Public Affairs Section of the US Consulate General in Lagos at the Freedom Park, Lagos.
According to him, "the presidential system of government is totally unfitted to the governance of Nigerians. The legislators have become a bastion of corruption while the system operational in the country encourages corruption."
Soyinka, who maintained his stance on Sovereign National Conference as panacea to salvaging Nigeria from total collapse said: “We can even remove the word sovereign, there is need for national dialogue because if we don't have a national dialogue, we will have monologues. Public detonators are monologues, Boko Haram is a hyper active secession by their expelling people in some states, purging it of the people who they believe don't share their ideologies.
“Zamfara State, during the last tenure of government, led in declaring itself a theocratic state and had some other states joining. Those are monologues. Despite loss of lives and traumatisation, the cravings for the emancipation of Blacks were a remarkable struggle on the part of the American civil rights as their struggle for justice, peace and equity paid off.
“What we have now is not a constitution because it was handed over to us by a bunch of neocolonialists in military uniform; they worked out that constitution. So, we need a single constitution binding all major issues in the country.”
Soyinka, who noted that the recent industrial action by civil societies and Labour was a necessary struggle for justice and prosperity, also cited the Nigerian civil war as a clear case of quest for justice and equity on the part of Biafrans, pointing out that although he is not strictly pro-Biafra, he was against the injustice meted on Biafrans since it is morally right to want to secede.
He also recounted the degradation that existed during the segregation of Blacks not only in the Western world but here in Nigeria during British rule which regrettably, he argued, is still existing among Nigerians.
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