Soyinka, speaking on Tuesday during the Special National Honours Investiture at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, urged Buhari to stop confusing Nigerians and take a stand.

He was one of the speakers at the occasion where MKO Abiola, the adjudged winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election and others were honoured.

Soyinka said, “As we inaugurate hall of fame, we should inaugurate hall of shame on another hand.

”Hall of Shame should be in line with Hall of Honours. Many unsung heroes and heroines. The torture, dehumanizing of Nigerians were horrendous.

“I will like to appeal to you to stop confusing Nigerians. It is not possible to honor MKO Abiola in one breadth and praise his tormentor in another breadth.”

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Soyinka said he does not expect Buhari to be shedding “unjust tears” but wants him to go against the “bloodthirsty terrorists”.

Speaking in Lagos, he said, “I get impatient when I hear things like Buhari has failed to go and sympathise with the people of Benue, with the people of Nassarawa, with the people of Dapchi or wherever.

“Who needs sympathy? Is it sympathy that will reorder their broken lives? Is sympathy the issue? We are speaking here of one commodity that is fundamentally human deserving, justice.

“There should an internal measure to avoid repeat. We are speaking here of a president that will respond with massive action and not showing up at the arena of human desecration to shed any unjust tears, but give orders that the bloodthirsty terrorists are brought to book.”

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Mr. Soyinka made this known in Lagos after a press briefing organised by the Wole Soyinka Foundation at Freedom Park.

The Nobel laureate said it was not appropriate to discuss Mr. Buhari’s re-election, saying he would not be part of such a debate.

“Why are we talking about a second term for heaven’s sake? I don’t understand this. I refuse to be part of that discussion. I absolutely refuse to be part of the discussion,” he said.

Commenting further, Mr. Soyinka noted that there are issues plaguing the present administration and that people agitating for state police and other concerns have reasons for such demands.

“Take simple security for instance,” he said, “the average citizen feels less secure now than he did a few years ago: that is evident. When people talk about state police, there are reasons for it. When they talk about bringing policing right down to the community level, they know what they are talking about. This is also part and parcel of reconstruction or reconfiguration.

“The economy, there is a big question about it right now. Fortunately, everybody admits that we went through a very bad patch. Right now, it is a question of have we come out of it or not or there is no question at all.

“The past few years have been years of real internal economic disaster for the average citizen.’’

He said there was a question of ”who was responsible for the agony the nation was plunged into in the last two years.”

On the need to restructure Nigeria, Mr. Soyinka accused some pundits of several attempts to cheapen the idea.

“It doesn’t matter what name you call it. We all know what we are talking about. We all know that this nation was deconstructed and that what we live in right now as a nation is not along a structure that expresses the true will of Nigerians.

“So, when people use words like ‘restructuring’, ‘reconfiguring’ or call it ‘reconfiguration’, ‘return to status quo’, or call it reformulating the protocols of our association or use a single word like ‘restructuring’, it doesn’t matter. Everybody knows what we are talking about.

“Also, there are those who try to divert the attention away from the main issue by mouthing platitudes, clichés like ‘it is the mind that needs restructuring.’ You know those I am referring to.”

Presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina recently criticised those calling for restructuring in an opinion piece. He asked such persons to ”restructure their minds first before calling for political restructuring.”

Mr. Soyinka said: “Restructuring the mind is not the issue. Nobody is saying that the exercise of restructuring the mind should not be undertaken; it should be undertaken. Anybody who indulges in self-examination is already engaging in an exercise of mental and attitudinal reconstruction. We know that. People shouldn’t try to substitute one for the other.

“I find it very dishonest and cheap trivialising the issue when I hear expressions like ‘it is the mind that needs to be restructured.’ Who is arguing or denying that? Why bring it up? Why is it a substitute?

“We are talking about the protocols of association of the constitutive parts of a nation. We are talking of decentralisation. That is another word. This country is over-centralised.

“Are you saying we cannot reconstruct the mind and reconstruct the nation at the same time? Call it by whatever name. We are saying that this nation is long overdue for reconfiguring. That is the expression I choose to use now.”

On concerns raised by some analysts about the propensity of restructuring efforts leading to the disintegration of the nation, Mr. Soyinka dismissed the fear as unfounded.

“I don’t know why people bother. Again, that is another ploy for sidetracking the issue. Nobody is talking about disuniting Nigeria,” he said.

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Soyinka spoke on Monday in Lagos when he announced the 10 Nigerian writers, who would be leaving for Lebanon in a cultural exchange programme, The Sail Project, between The Wole Soyinka Foundation and Cedar Institute, University of Lebanon.

He noted that the present structure of the country does not allow structuring that expresses the true will of Nigerians.

“My own position is that people shouldn’t allow themselves be put up by those who try to cheat on the expression, ‘restructuring.’

“It doesn’t matter by what name you call it. We all know that this nation was deconstructed and what we live in right now, as a nation, is not allowing structuring that expresses the true will of Nigerians,” he said.

According to him, every Nigerian knows what restructuring is all about whether it is called reconfiguring, return to status quo, or reformulating the protocols of association.

He however decried those who try to divert away the attention from the main issue by mouthing platitudes like it is the mind that needs restructuring. To him, this is a constant process, both as individual exercise as well as even the theological exercise.

“People go to churches and mosques for their minds to be restructured. Restructuring the mind is not the issue; nobody is saying restructuring the mind should not be undertaken; anybody who is involved in examination already engages in mental and or attitudinal reconstruction.

“So people should not try to substitute one for another. I find it very dishonest and cheap, trivializing the issue when people said it is the mind, which needs to be restructured. Who is denying that? So, why bring it up? We’re talking about the protocol of the association of the constitutive part of the nation. We’re talking about decentralization, that is, another word. This country is over-centralised and that has been the bugbear of development, even of issues like security.

“Even if it is one state, that state has the right to say, listen people, let us restructure this state; the protocols that went into the making of this state are no longer viable or have been distorted along the way or have been abandoned and we want to go back to the original set of protocols that created what we call his national entity. You can say you want to reinvent the wheels completely or you want to go back to the original protocols of association,” he added.

He noted that average citizen feels less secure than a few years ago yet ‘when people talk about state police, there are reasons for it. When they talk about bringing policing right down to the community level, they know what they are talking about; this is also part of restructuring or reconfiguration of the articles of association.’

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