Prof. Soyinka made this disclosure while opening up in a press interview on his discussion with the President at the Presidential Villa on August 11, 2016.
The Nobel Laureate had before now declined to respond to questions after meeting with the president with reportedly took place in Buhari's office at the period under review but assured newsmen that he will call a press conference.
Soyinka further said he initiated the meeting where a wide range of issues were covered ranging from the Niger Delta crisis, kidnapping of the Chibok girls (Boko Haram kidnapped 219 girls from a secondary school in Chibok town, Borno State on April 14, 2014), to corruption and what he described as other peripheral issues.
His words:
“I was the one who initiated the meeting…I had an appeal from the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) they were willing or close to embarking on a ceasefire but that they needed the government to respond, in a very positive way, to meeting their grievances.
“I knew that the president had already met some of those spokespersons of the NDA, according to my information. I don’t know their names, by the way… I sent a message and President Buhari made time for us to meet.
“My position was that this was an issue that should be treated holistically. We shouldn’t wait until people take to arms in one form or the other before addressing certain social anomalies, social grievances, dissatisfaction, sense of alienation, etc. No matter what!
“My position is that the Delta insurgency and restlessness is an integral part of a certain dissatisfaction with the internal arrangements, socio-political arrangements of the nation.
“In other words, for me, I just see this as an aspect of a call for restructuring because of the peculiar history of the Delta region in relation to others, has given rise to militarism which surges again and again and again.
“So, I believe we had a very, I believe, positive discussion on that. In fact, I remember telling him that each time you say Nigeria’s sovereignty is not negotiable, you or Obasanjo or Gowon or you military people, each time you say Nigeria’s sovereignty is not negotiable.
“You are already negotiating Nigerian sovereignty; so, let’s move away from the rhetoric and get practical. So, it (the discussion) was along those lines that we had our conversation.
“Not only on the Niger Delta issue, also talked about Chibok girls, on corruption, on a number of other peripheral issues… I had an interesting respondent to, shall we say, a number of issues. Naturally, the discussion was cordial, frank and I think, positive discussion that we had.
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