NOBEL Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has lamented the failure of Nigeria to manifest traits of a succeeding nation 50 years into independence.

Speaking as guest speaker at the 50th Independence anniversary of Nigeria, organised by the Rivers State government in Port Harcourt on Monday, Professor Soyinka noted that the Nigerian nation had not been able to find the link between potential and fulfilment.

The Nobel Laureate, who spoke alongside other world-renowned scholars, observed that no matter how accepted a concept or government was, it remained a failure so long as it was unable to feed the people.

He, however, wondered what it was in the current Nigerian system that was worth celebrating at 50, adding that contrary to reasons given for celebration like the nation’s ability to still remain an entity, the current situation of the ordinary Nigerian left nothing to be desired.

He also advised Nigerians to look away from the nation’s oil and gas endowment and think of other means of economic sustenance, citing agriculture as man’s age-long source of wealth and sustenance.

In his own presentation, former vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Emeritus Tekena Tamuno, observed that many Nigerians had been using the concept of colonialism as their escape route from accepting responsibility for their failures.

According to the professor of History, Nigeria has no excuse not to be one of the most successful nations of the world today, citing the experience of India, South Africa and the United States of America, nations with past in colonialism, but have managed to attain heights of achievements.

He also noted that though Nigeria claimed to be an independent nation, it still largely remained “an economic slave” to the powerful nations of the world, adding that the nation had wasted too many golden opportunities for development over the years.

On the current political situation in Nigeria, the Professor Emeritus warned those who were adamantly advocating zoning as a means of disenfranchising the Niger Delta from contesting the presidency to mind their language and their logic as their hard stance might change the way things were done in Nigeria.

The event, which was graced by the Rivers State governor, Right Honourable Chibuike Amaechi, his deputy, Mr Tele Ikuru, the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Honourable Tonye Harry, other senior members of the state’s administration and traditional rulers, also had other speakers like Professor Akpezi Ogwuigwe and Professor Ben Naane.

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