Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, asserted that President Bola Tinubu’s electoral triumph received a boost from Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, who diverged from his previous running mate, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Soyinka made these remarks at a dialogue hosted by ‘Africa in the World’ in Stellenbosch, South Africa, as stated in a press release on Saturday.
In his statement, Soyinka implored politicians to shoulder responsibility for the repercussions of their decisions. He remarked, “Our ongoing fallacy lies in perceiving the recent Nigerian elections as an adversarial drama. In truth, the election results accurately depicted the outcome when a political party divides itself, especially in such a critical proximity to an election.”
“What promised to be a spectacular contest is transformed into a Feast of Voluntary Donation of the spoils of war. That, however, is not always the ultimate destination – the re-gifting may continue, prodded by a sudden surge of regret. There remains, lurking in the background, a far more potent beneficiary.
“In this case, we easily recall it as the unregistered but loudly canvassed IPP – the Interim Peoples Party, usually to be found in bed with the military. The notorious Datti interview, menacing, intimidating and unambiguous, sets the scene for such re-entry. Then, history repeats itself over and over again, as currently manifested along the West African sub-region. The ‘call to arms’ is made literal by those whose trade is precisely that of arms.
“Barring such abrupt ‘patriotic intervention,’ however, the last word belongs to the Supreme Court. Until that conclusive hour, wherever and whenever the subject turns to the Nigerian elections, my contribution can be taken for granted in advance: Peter Obi did not win the Nigerian 2023 elections. Jointly with his erstwhile colleague of the PDP, Abubakar Atiku, they donated the outcome, even before the voting.
“Let politicians and their cohorts learn to take responsibility for the consequences of their choices within democratic options.”
During his speech at the event on Wednesday, the Nobel Laureate had accused the Labour Party of attempting to deceive Nigerians about the outcome of the February 25 election.
Meanwhile, the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Abayomi Arabambi, has said Soyinka’s recent disclosure that Obi never won the election was nothing but the obvious truth that resonates with Nigerians.
Arabambi added that the party saw the reaction of its factional Chairman, Julius Abure, through his personal media aide, Mr Obiorah Ifoh, to Soyinka’s statement as nothing but an “affront and abuse from a rude boy to his grandfather.”
In a statement made available to the Sunday PUNCH, Arabambi said, “As a party, we knew that Professor Wole Soyinka was right in his submission because how does anyone claim to have won an election based solely on pejoratives, assumption, vague rhetoric and zero evidence pointing to such being the case?
“It was all on the expectation that the actual winner would be disqualified and by some stroke of black magic, the candidate in the third place will suddenly be declared winner without any proof of having scored the majority vote is absolute judicial madness on display by Peter Obi, Julius Abure and their blind allies.
“We know we lost that election, it was true Obi and Abure wanted to do gbajue because ab initio, even when the presidential campaign council was formed in the north, Peter Obi used Igbo as state coordinators while a northerner remained their deputy.”
