Presidency informs Wole Soyinka that President Buhari inherited a divided Nigeria in 2015.
The Presidency through the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari, on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has said that the President inherited a “terribly” divided country from his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, in 2015, Page 36 learnt.
He stated that Nigeria has always been divided, and there was nothing special about the comments made by Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, and former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Adesina said this on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’, on Wednesday.
He noted that in a country of 200 million people, it would be impossible for everyone to agree and perceive things the same way.
The President’s Aide added that not every criticism should give cause for concern.
His words: “Nigeria had always been divided. Always. Right from amalgamation in 1914, Nigeria has always been divided. Nigeria is an inconvenient amalgamation but we have worked at it and I tell you that there is no time in the history of this country that the country was not divided but then we had kept at it and we were trying to make it work.
“As of 2015, when President Buhari came, Nigeria was terribly, terribly divided; divided along religious lines, divided along ethnic lines; divided along language, divided hopelessly, terribly and that is the division that the President had been working at. But you see that a lot of people instead of letting harmony return to this country, thrive and luxuriate in widening the gulf. They play politics with everything.”
He added that although the government would continue to respect Soyinka as a Nobel Laureate, it would not accept everything he says.
Adesina said that Soyinka has been a government critic for decades, and had even criticised Buhari when he was a Military Head of State in the 1980s.
The President’s Aide disclosed that in 2015, Soyinka did not support Buhari, but only tagged him as slightly better than Jonathan.
Presidency says that former President Olusegun Obasanjo is used to criticising past governments.
As regards criticisms fired at President Buhari by Obasanjo, Adesina said that it seems the former President is still upset that President Buhari won the election, despite his opposition to his bid to run for a second term.
He stated that Obasanjo had been critical of every past government, and so his recent statement would not bother the Presidency.
He noted: “There is no government he has not criticised. The only government he has not criticised is the Olusegun Obasanjo government. So, that kind of person has a right to air his opinion, and you also have a right to take it or not to take it.”
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