Soyinka canvasses support for anti-graft crusade

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has called on all stakeholders in the country to support the fight against corruption and other related practices, saying the war needed collective effort to be successful.

The renown playwright who spoke at the grand finale of the seventh edition of the “Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange” held at the Obas Complex, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, capital of Ogun State said Nigeria must be returned to its place of honour and dignity where anybody found to be corrupt in the society would be ashamed to walk freely on the street.

The well-attended event was part of activities organised to mark Soyinka’s 82nd birthday.

Soyinka, while speaking on the theme, “Corruption: A battle for the Arts”, enjoined creative writers and artistes to use their place of work to fight corruption.

Lamenting the level of corruption, which he said had eaten deep into every fabric of Nigeria’s society, the professor of literature, suggested: “Anybody caught or found to be guilty should be made to face the full wrath of the law.”

At the event which took place yesterday, Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun spoke on the topic of the Wole Soyinka Essay Competition, “Challenges or Not, you must love your country”, charging students who formed the bulk of the audience to, like Soyinka, continue to show love and support for the country.

Amosun congratulated the winners of this year’s contest and charged other students to be more diligent, irrespective of the challenges of growing up, saying “tough situations don’t last, but tough people do”.