Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka Thursday said that Nigeria needs an emergency economic conference.
“I think we really need an emergency economic conference, a rescue operation bringing as many heads as possible together to plot the way forward,” he said during a courtesy visit to the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in his office in Abuja on Thursday.
“The economic condition of a nation, of a people does not deteriotate overnight. Something came before that deterioration,” he said. He blamed the deterioration of the economy on “a certain prolonged and unchecked process of attrition”, adding that Nigerians should not expect a quick turnaround of the economy.
“Recovery is going to take quite a while…The President should call an emergency economic conference, with experts to be invited. Consumers, producers, labour unions, university experts, professors, etc.,” Soyinka said.
According to Soyinka, the government must, however, remain resolute in its ongoing fight against corruption. He also expressed satisfaction with ”both the target and tempo of motion” as far as the government’s efforts are concerned.
He advised the government to ensure its anti-corruption battle is fought within the confines of the law, saying that if that goal (of fighting corruption) is attained by positive means, if nothing else, the government would have moved the nation forward by many years.
