LP slams ‘double-faced’ Soyinka for his ‘primordial considerations’
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Wole Soyinka has come under fire from the Labour Party (LP) for alleging it knew Peter Obi did not win the presidential election yet tried to deceive Nigerians, particularly Obidients, that he did.
The Nobel Laureat made the claim in far away Stellenbosch, South Africa at an event titled “The Lives of Wole Soyinka – A Dialogue” where he digressed from the discussion to take another swipe at Obi and his followers.
He repeated his negative obsession with Obidients, whereas many other opinion leaders – from Oby Ezekwesili in the South to Shehu Sani in the North – have praised the supporters of the LP presidential candidate for helping change the Nigerian political landscape the better.
After Soyinka’s latest outburst, his negative “obsession” with Obidients was criticised by Ayo Mario-Ese on The Morning Show programme on Arise News on September 14.
Her co-anchor Reuben Abati stressed some Obidients may be extreme, but there are also extremists in other political parties, so it is “not fair” for Soyinka to focus only on extremist Obidients because there are good ones, as with supporters of other parties.
Soyinka accused the LP of playing “gbajue” (deception) on the people, especially the youth, despite knowing Obi did not win the election.
He ignored the claim by Obi that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deliberately manipulated the ballot by reducing his votes and increasing those of Bola Tinubu.
Obi has cited, for example, the result in Rivers where INEC viewing portal, IReV, shows he won the state but the INEC allocated it to Tinubu.
LP National Publicity Secretary Obiora Ifoh said Soyinka’s comment is not expected of someone who is supposed to be detribalised.
Ifoh gave the riposte in a statement titled “Soyinka: Statesmen are not double-faced, not blind to the truth” in which he also wondered how the playwright could succumb to the “groupthink syndrome” based on primordial sentiments.
A groupthink syndrome occurs when a group of individuals reaches a consensus without critical reasoning or evaluation of the consequences or alternatives.
“Prof. Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian whose accomplishments in the literary world are without doubt intimidating. However, we beg to disagree with his prognosis and personal opinion on the performance of our party during the 2023 general elections,” Ifoh said.
“The facts are before the courts and, out of respect for our judiciary, we will reserve our comments until the Supreme Court makes a final pronouncement.
“We understand that the literary giant is human and thus susceptible to emotions and probably said what he said based on information made available to him by those who share the ‘Emilokan’ [it is my turn] sentiment [Tinubu expressed during the campaign].
“It is most befuddling as well as disconcerting that a detribalised activist like Soyinka would succumb to the ‘groupthink syndrome’ that subscribes to state capture by those belonging to the criminal fringe by any means, based on primordial considerations.
“We really appreciate him for at least giving some credit to the Labour Party and its presidential candidate for breaking the monopoly of power hitherto held by the two other parties.”
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Soyinka’s expressed ‘bias’
Ifoh also expressed disappointment that Soyinka decided to choose a side rather than condemn the anomalies and criminal activities in the run up to, and during, the election and the abysmal performance of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), per reporting by The PUNCH.
“The whole world followed the 2023 general election and there was a global condemnation of not only the outcome of the election but also the process, particularly, the ‘glitch’ that occurred only during the transmission of presidential results to IREV.
“We didn’t hear as much as a whisper from Kongi [Soyinka] on reminding INEC to stand by its word.
“We will not allege selective amnesia as the reason for Soyinka’s wrong prognosis but we would have expected him to be a statesman, which we thought he was by remaining on the side of caution.
“We want to also let him know that building a new Nigeria is a dream whose time has come and Nigerian youths will not relent until such dream is realized.”
