By Ayo Yusuf
Followers of Peter Obi, known as Obidients, are currently trading words with Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka who took potshots at the Labour Party’s Presidential candidate on Wednesday, during a speech he delivered in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Prof. Soyinka said the Labour Party was aware that Mr. Obi did not win the February 25 election yet the party’s leadership attempted to mobilise young people to protest against the outcome of the election on the “banner of lies and deceit”.
The literary giant was speaking at an event titled: “The Lives of Wole Soyinka – A Dialogue,” organised by “Africa in the World,” a group known to bring together some of the world’s most innovative thinkers to share invigorating ideas for fresh changes and sustainable solutions for African people.
Prof. Soyinka, who was asked to react to the comment he made against Datti Baba-Ahmed, Obi’s running mate, after the general election, said the truth matters to him and he was not one to look for shortcuts.
He recalled that when he invaded the radio station in Ibadan decades ago, he was armed with facts and not “relying on third-hand information” about the result of the regional election.
Accusing the LP of taking over the organised Labour movement in the build-up to the election, he noted that Mr. Obi achieved “something remarkable” by breaking the monopoly of power established by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He said: “This recent election – two things happened first of all. One party took over the Labour movement, which is not my favourite movement, and then it became a regional party.
“Whereas it was a marvelous breach into the established two camps, Peter Obi achieved something remarkable there, that he broke that mould. However, he did not win the election.
“I can say categorically that Peter Obi’s party came third not even second and the leadership knew it but they want to do what we call in Yoruba ‘gbajue’, that is force of lies.”
Prof. Soyinka said he was peeved that the LP leadership attempted to mobilise young people to protest against the outcome of the election on the “banner of lies and deceit”.
He said: “They were going to send some of the hardliners, proud young people into the street to demonstrate. I’m also ready to be among such demonstrators but only on the banner of truth not on lies, and deceit.”
The Nobel laureate alleged that the LP wanted a post-election violence on the basis of a lie, adding that its vice presidential candidate went on television boasting, insisting, threatening and trying to intimidate both the judiciary and the rest.
He said: “What kind of government will result from that kind of conduct? In addition, they did not know this but they were being used.
“Before the election, there were certain clandestine forces, including some ex-generals, who were already calling for an interim government before the elections began.
“Some of them were known figures, including a proprietor of a university calling for an interim government before the election took place.”
His comments have since generated heat in the social media as followers of Mr. Obi did not hold back in their castigation of the literary icon.
Tweeting with the handle @aai_austin, an Obi supporter wrote, “This insurrectionist. This cultist Who invaded a radio station at gunpoint, littered universities and the streets of Nigeria with cultism is out again making bogus claims.”
Malcolm Omirhobo, another Obi supporter, said, “While Soyinka tried hard to mislead and misinform the whole world by hammering that Peter Obi did not win the election but he mischievously deliberately refused to address the issues as to whether the election was free, fair , credible and transparent.”
Mikael Bernard, another social media user said, “Soyinka is a bigot. He completely avoided the trending news about Tinubu and his Chicago University Certificate forgeries, DrugTrafficking, and others but decided to distract Nigerians with his false and fake news.”
@FemiLakers wrote, “But did he win (sic) Lagos and FCT , some professor are political contractors”
However, one @aliyusalehjnr1, also a Twitter user, aligned with the position of Professor Soyinka, saying, “Everybody including Obi knew this. But I don’t know how they think.”
This is not the first time that Mr. Soyinka and followers of Peter Obi Will trade accusations.
In March, the Nobel Laureate had disagreed with the comment credited to the LP vice-presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, shortly after INEC declared President Bola Tinubu the winner of the election.
In a programme on Channels Television, Baba-Ahmed asked former President Muhammadu Buhari and the then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kayode Ariwoola, to stay away from the May 29 handover ceremony because of there would be consequences over the poor conduct of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Following the dismissal of its petition by the presidential election petition tribunal last week, the party has vowed to take its case against Mr Tinubu’s victory to the Supreme Court.
