Insecurity: Soyinka Urges FG to Seek Help

Prof. Wole Soyinka has urged the federal government to seek help to combat the rising issue of insecurity ravaging the country.

Soyinka stated this on Saturday on the Arise TV program. According to him, the country has entered the “stage of desperation,” and the government should be ready to “pay people to come and help us” in defense against Boko Haram insurgents, bandits, and other criminal elements.

He accused some northern governors of negotiating with bandits and criminal elements. According to him, “You don’t appease evil; we are dealing with corruption, there is no other word, we are dealing with the proliferation, the enthronement of evil in the society. And unfortunately, we have encouraged its manifestation, its increase, its entrenchment.

“So, let them get away with the issue of sovereignty. If they have to pay people to come and help us, then call them whatever you want. Please go ahead because we’ve reached that stage of desperation.

“But I will prefer a general mobilization in which people are trained, farmers especially are trained to work with the hoe in one hand and the gun in the other hand, ready to protect their lives, their harvests and the rest of us.

“We are not unique, history is full of those situations…I will like to see a national mobilisation. Let’s be practical.”

Recall that earlier; President Muhammadu Buhari has said the Nigerian government is procuring more equipment to fight security issues in various parts of the country.

The President stressed that intelligence gathering was vital to the nation’s security. He stated that people must be discouraged from sabotaging the efforts of the security forces.‌

Buhari also encouraged the governors to work in close contact with the traditional authorities and the local community because intelligence is a big part. He encouraged them that they should work together with the traditional leaders and the local organizations so that those who sabotage efforts of the military, mainly through giving information to the other side, can be encouraged to provide adequate information to the military so that the security situation can be tackled.

On his part, the Borno State governor Babagana Zulum had consequently urged the Federal Government to engage mercenaries and the militaries of neighboring countries like Chad, Cameroon to crush the over ten years Boko Haram insurgency.