Soyinka Warns against Complacency in Corruption Fight, as Minister Visits

  FG to make National Theatre magnet for creative arts

Abimbola Akosile

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has asserted that the federal government’s ongoing anti-corruption fight would succeed, but warned against complacency since, according to him, corruption would always fight back.

Soyinka spoke on Saturday when answering questions from the media during a courtesy visit paid to him by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in his (Soyinka’s) office at the Freedom Park in Lagos.

He said never before, not even during the country’s civil war, was the money meant to buy arms for the military to defend the country and protect the citizenry shared by a few people.

Soyinka said despite the fact that corruption would always fight back, he was so sure that the anti-graft battle would not fail, adding that he is ready to give his choicest wine to the questioner, should the anti-corruption fight go otherwise.
“We are not where we were (in the fight against corruption) before this administration took over, but (the government should realise that) corruption will always fight back,’” he said, noting that those already in the cesspit of corruption would be in the forefront of such a counter-battle.

Meanwhile, the federal government has expressed its readiness to make the National Theatre a magnet for the creative arts. The Minister, Alhaji Mohammed, gave the assurance yesterday during the courtesy visit to Prof. Wole Soyinka in Lagos.

Reiterating his earlier statement, he assured listeners that the national monument would not be sold but would be brought up to standard through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.

Mohammed said he is currently studying the PPP proposal with a view to ensuring that the government and people of the country get a good deal from it. He said the visit to the Nobel Laureate was to enable him to drink from his (Soyinka’s) cup of wisdom.

Soyinka had earlier called on the federal government to consider building a ‘genuine’ National Theatre, saying what is presently referred to as the National Theatre was never designed to be a theatre in the first place, even though it is “adaptable in many ways”.

“This nation needs a genuine theatre. As long as we keep calling it (National Theatre) a theatre, this nation will never build a theatre,” he said.

Soyinka agreed with the Minister that a PPP deal represented one of the most realistic ways to upgrade the standard of the National Theatre and enhance its functionality.