Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka said President Muhammadu Buhari’s government is now quiet on the fight against corruption in the country, adding that the system has been manipulated.

Soyinka said this on Wednesday during a television programme, Kakaaki on AIT.

 “There are so many people who should be in prison if this government had not run out of steam.

“ The system is being manipulated. There are cases where the prosecution had reached the level where evidence had been given on governors who had been stealing and depositing in bits and pieces so as not to flout a certain regulation. I mean cases have been taken to that level and suddenly, silence. The EFCC, which I back solidly ever since the days of (Nuhu) Ribadu, in all kinds of ways, we no longer know the distinguishing from rights and left,” he disclosed.

He added that the system had become corrupted that court cases were being stretched out through technicalities.

The playwright had also called on the National Assembly (NASS) to respond to the calls for restructuring.

He said the National Assembly has the powers and moral authority to respond to the calls if the Presidency refuses to take a step on it.

“The Presidency is saying it’s not my responsibility. On the other hand, the National Assembly keeps saying it wants the President to take action. When that happens, why doesn’t the National Assembly say ‘fine, we take this as our responsibility, we are obliged to the people who elected us here, the shout is heard even by the deaf today that this nation must restructure, and if that has to be done through the constitution, we are now going to face this as one of our major tasks’ and then lead the Presidency on its own?” he said.

He stressed that, “If the Presidency is not responding, then the National Assembly has the powers and the moral authority to respond to the desire of the populace.”

Soyinka, explaining why the National Assembly has been reluctant to take up the action stated that, “Very often, they are struggling for those various committees where I think all the goodies are shared, so they are compromised. But when I speak about this, I’m not speaking about the entirety. But unfortunately, there are those who are purely for their own interest and who make compromises with the Executives simply because they want to fulfil their own personal interest.”