Nigeria is falling apart, Soyinka

London, 16 March-(ANA)-Nigerian veteran writer and activist Wole Soyinka has said that  his country is now a failed state.

The Noble prize-winning playwright said the country was now close to breaking up and that its leadership has descended into a "theatre of the absurd."

Soyinka told a London newspaper, The Independent, that ordinary people's "anger has peaked", with potentially lethal consequences adding,  "Nigeria is looking at its last chance in the next year." Africa's most populous country and leading oil producer is beset by multiple crises, from attacks by armed militants in the Niger Delta to sectarian massacres in its central region and a protracted struggle

The playwright condemned what he called the "industry of lies" that had grown up around the President's medical condition. He said Nigeria's first lady, Turai Yar'Adua, who has denied access to her husband and kept his true condition a secret, should stand trial for her role in the power vacuum. "This woman is there standing guard against the truth of his health," Mr Soyinka said. "When will the rest of the nation wake up?"

Mr Yar'Adua was taken to hospital in Saudi Arabia in November and only came back to Nigeria last month. Since his return he has been kept in an ambulance; he is treated only by Saudi doctors and no one outside his wife's inner circle has seen him, including the acting president, Goodluck Jonathan.(ANA)

FA/ANA/16 March 2010---------