The Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka claims that the Labour Party (LP) leadership knew Peter Obi, the presidential candidate, would lose the February 25 poll.
On Wednesday in Stellenbosch, South Africa, the Nobel laureate appeared at an event titled “The Lives of Wole Soyinka — A Dialogue” organized by Africa in the World.
Soyinka accused the opposition party’s leadership of trying to put “a lie” on Nigerians, particularly youths, that Obi had won the poll.
Soyinka accused the LP of seizing control of the organized labour movement before the 2023 election. He also stated that Obi accomplished “something remarkable” by breaking the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) monopolies of power.
“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,” he said.
“Whereas it was a marvellous 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 a force of lies.”
Soyinka also alleged that the LP leadership attempted to mobilise young people to protest against the outcome of the election on the “banner of lies and deceit”.
“They were going to send some of the hardliners, proud young people into the street to demonstrate,” he said.
“I’m also ready to be among such demonstrators but only on the banner of truth not on lies, and deceit.
“This party wanted the same thing (referring to 2011 post-election violence) to happen on the basis of a lie and we find this vice-presidential candidate on television boasting, insisting, threatening and trying to intimidate both the judiciary and the rest.
“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.”
Wole Soyinka and the LP have been at odds since Baba-Ahmed’s statements on the presidential election outcome.
In an interview with Channels TV on March 22, Baba-Ahmed stated that the country has no president-elect and that Tinubu should not be sworn in as president because he “did not meet requirements of the law,” despite the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) declaration of Bola Tinubu, flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner of the election.
In response to the remark, Soyinka stated that the LP vice-presidential candidate used “fascistic language” and that he had “never heard anyone threaten the judiciary on television the way Datti did.”
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