Nigeria’s Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has accused the Nigerian government of negligence over the way it’s handled the religious bodies and leaders that flouted its ban on gatherings with more certain number of persons over the COVID-19 pandemic.
Soyinka, who has been in self-quarantine since returning from the United States, nine days ago, made this statement in an interview with BBC Africa.
Over the weekend some preachers in Nigeria ignored government directives about social distancing and went ahead with Sunday services attended by thousands of congregants.
“They have been treated with kid gloves for too long… I think there is too much political correctness going on.
“What the government should do in such instances is to take note of these contraveners of common sense and ensure that they are punished after this crisis is over or at some point or the other.
“We have to take on churches and mosques, religions of any kind, including traditional religions, that misbehave and let them understand that they are living in very different times than that of their imagination.”
Soyinka said the government should have had enough isolation centres, well-stocked pharmacies and research centres that would have helped deal with the crisis.
