Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has said if clashes between herdsmen and farmers are not tackled, then there is no government in Nigeria. Soyinka made the statement on Thursday before unveiling the logo of 2018 Obafemi Awolowo University Festival of Foods and Identity.
According to him, “This is not the best of times for this nation. For us as a people, it is not the most cheerful of times, we have a responsibility to ourselves as living beings not to allow destruction to overtake or overwhelm our creativity. “We shall beat swords into plough shears, it means the instrument of cultivation. We must overcome the instrument of destruction.
“Between the time of the launching of this logo and the action manifestation of the festival itself, we should have seen signs that the clash between swords and the plowshares is reversed. This would have given us total fulfillment as people with culture, peace and harmony.”
Soyinka added that, “We cannot continue to see the seeming triumph of the guns over the plowshare. We want to see this government’s reversal of the triumph of the swords over the plough shears. If this has not taken place, it means we have no government.
“If those who have been displaced, the farmers that has been displaced in their hundreds from various parts of this nation especially in the north, if the farmers have not been taken back to their productive environment, it means we have no government. Let us all join hands to bet the sword into plowshares.”
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