Something is critically wrong within the leadership of this nation and that is where we civilians must come in. You must pick up this slack for our own situation, our own salvation.
Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari clearly does not understand the pervading herdsmen’s violent crisis in the country and that the president is not in charge of the situation.
According to the Noble laureate, the manner with which the President has so far handled insecurity suggests that he doesn't have a full grasp of how bad it is.
Soyinka stated these in an interview on Arise Television on Thursday, adding that he also did not believe herdsmen should be compensated as being preached in some quarters.
“I have said this before and I wish to repeat this. Buhari does not appreciate the situation; he doesn’t understand. I see no evidence that he understands how grave the situation is. I have said it again and again, I don’t believe that he is in charge, because it is not possible in my view for a head of state, Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces to say he is presiding over a nation and things get to this level.
“Something is critically wrong within the leadership of this nation and that is where we civilians must come in. You must pick up this slack for our own situation, our own salvation, and this is one of the things we engaged in and that is why I resent this becoming individualised. Wole Soyinka is just another individual, just like another farmer, another student and I wanted people to understand this.
“What happened to me with this incident is just typical of what is happening to millions of people all over the country and we cannot just sit still.
“I just read the reports that the herdsmen should be compensated. What kind of rubbish is that?”
Herdsmen with their cows had also on Tuesday invaded the Kemta Estate, Abeokuta, Ogun State’s residence of Soyinka, drawing widespread condemnation from Nigerians, although the police in the state dismissed the incident as a situation of only one or two cows straying