If farmers displaced by herdsmen are not back to farm, then we have no government – Soyinka

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has said government cannot be said to be in existence if farmers displaced by herdsmen are not back to their productive environment.
Soyinka said this on Thursday at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State during the inauguration of the 2018 OAU Ife Festival of Foods and Identity.
He said: “This is not the best of times for this nation.
“For us as a people, it is not the most cheerful of times.
“We have a responsibility to ourselves as living beings not to allow destruction to overtake or overwhelm our creativity.
“We shall beat swords into plough shears.
“It means the instrument of cultivation.
“We must overcome the instrument of destruction.
“Between the time of the launching of this logo and the action manifestation of the festival itself, we should have seen signs that the clash between swords and the ploughshares is reversed.
“This would have given us total fulfilment as people with culture, peace and harmony.
“We cannot continue to see the seeming triumph of the guns over the ploughshare.
“We want to see this government’s reversal of the triumph of the swords over the plough shears.
“If this has not taken place, it means we have no government.
“If those who have been displaced, the farmers that have been displaced in their hundreds from various parts of this nation, especially in the north, if the farmers have not been taken back to their productive environment, it means we have no government.
“Let us all join hands to bet the sword into ploughshares.”
The Vice-Chancellor of OAU, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede, said the festival came at the right time to showcase to Nigerians and Africans the rich varieties of Nigerian foods.
Ogunbodede said: “Over the ages, food and indemnity are virtual synonyms – you are what you eat.
“All over the world, indigenous foods and prepared dishes share some similarities such as method of preparation, which include frying, steaming, baking and grilling.
“There is a pervading African attitude to food and hospitality that is almost identical in most parts of Africa.
“For instance, it is uncommon for Africans to prepare, eat without thinking of visitors, strangers and the less privileged, who might show up in the home without prior notice.”
The Director of the Institute of Cultural Studies, Dr. Felix Omidire, said: “The OAU Ife Festival of Food and Identity seeks to enshrine the place and memory of our indigenous food ways in the psyche of our youth.”