Looking at Nigeria from all parameters of assessment, the Nobel Laureate has concluded on Wednesday that government appears to have given up the fight against corruption. In his view, the system has been so corrupted that cases are stretched out into silence by all kinds of technicalities.
He said: “There are so many people who should be in prison if this government had not run out of steam, and so the system is being manipulated.
“There are cases where the prosecution had reached the level where evidence had been given on governors who had been stealing and depositing in bits and pieces so as not to flout a certain regulation.
“I mean cases have been taken to that level and suddenly, silence.
“The EFCC, which I backed solidly ever since the days of (Nuhu Ribadu), in all kinds of ways; we no longer can distinguish from rights and left.”
Asked whether the National Assembly, dominated by the All Progressives Congress, APC, was not putting enough pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari, he said NASS has a lot of work to do in its relationship with the President.
However, Soyinka said the desire of some lawmakers for committee positions “where I think all the goodies are shared” has made them compromise.
He added that “It is the responsibility of the constituency to remind them of these derelictions; these failures to come up to scratch as expected when they come round next for elections.”