Nigeria Has Always Been Divided, Presidency Replies Soyinka

Femi Adesina
Femi Adesina

The presidency has expressed that President Muhammadu Buhari is not responsible for the observed division in the country by Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka.

Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity gave this response while speaking on Channels’ TV program, ‘Politics Today,” on Wednesday evening.

He pointed out that Buhari inherited a “terribly” divided country from his predecessors.

Also Read: Nigeria Nears Total Collapse, Says Soyinka

Recall that on Tuesday, Soyinka agreed with former President, Olusegun Obasanjo’s position that Nigeria is divided under the current administration than never before.

Reacting to the statement, Adesina expressed that there was nothing special about the comments by the Nobel laureate and the former President as Nigeria had always been divided.

Adesina stated, “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.”