Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka announced on Sunday that he intends to withhold his assessments of President Bola Tinubu’s administration until a year into its tenure in May 2024.
This deliberate one-year delay, according to Soyinka, allows the President ample time to address and rectify any shortcomings that may have arisen.
Soyinka articulated this stance during a courtesy visit to President Tinubu, who is currently on holiday in Lagos.
“Well, you know, something you may have noticed about me is that most heads of state, when they take office, I always leave them alone for about the first year…Because they need time.
“I know when they come in, they don’t start from ground zero. They often start even lower than ground zero and they have to make up.
“So, I’m adopting the same principle this time. When you see me next year, ask the same question again and listen to my answer,” he explained.
Soyinka who called Sunday’s appearance an “embarrassing visit” said he approached the President with a seven-point agenda which he declined to reveal.
“I came here with a seven-point agenda. And we had a very thorough discussion on those items.
“Actually, it’s an embarrassing visit because when I visited him the last time, it was to try and persuade him not to run for office. I told Atiku and himself to please leave the ground so young people could run. That’s the last time we met about five years ago.
“So I came to see how he was doing after ignoring my advice. I came to see how both he and his wife were weathering Nigeria, and to wish them a Happy Christmas,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti, who also visited Tinubu in Lagos, urged Nigerians to remain patient saying the economic reforms will yield prosperity if sustained.
Otti said “One thing is that he has a very courageous, unifying the exchange rate and then removing subsidy which actually had become a scam and costing us a lot of money.
“Those policies are good but then they come with the negative sides. They come with challenges for an economy where over 60 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.
“So it’s not going to be easy, immediately. But I believe that if we are patient and if we go through the policies without compromising that over time, things will turn around.”
