Soyinka plans naming looters in Tinubu’s APC who were corrupt in elective offices
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Wole Soyinka has promised to name members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu’s party, who should be investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for their corruption when they held elective offices.
The Nobel Laureate and long-time social critic – who will be 90 in July – recounted the President was a dogged fighter during the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) days three decades ago but he said he would not let past achievements affect his opinion or criticism on any public issue.
“Tinubu was a doughty fighter during the anti-Sani Abacha struggle. Even law recognises that somebody’s record must always be taken to account before you descend on that person for some kind of neglect, criminality, failure, whatever,” Soyinka said on Channels Television on Thursday.
“However, I can never allow the past of any individual to twist my appeal on any urgent issue. I cannot say because you were a fighter during the NADECO struggle, I will sit down and watch you condone corruption, that includes failures.
“For instance, when it’s time, I’m going to look at those in his (Tinubu’s) government who should be under trial right now and yet who occupy critical positions in the ruling party.
“Are they asking questions from the EFCC? This and this individual who held this position at this time who had immunity at the time, no longer has immunity, ICPC, EFCC, what are you doing about them? What happened? We’ve been waiting.”
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Soyinka alleges plot to annul Tinubu’s election
Fielding questions from reporters after he visited Tinubu in Lagos last December, Soyinka said his assessment of the current administration would come after Tinubu has served for one year, his usual threshold for assessing new administrations.
He reiterated he had counselled Tinubu back in 2018 not to run for President and to leave the state for the younger generation, an advice Tinubu rebuffed.
This, he disclosed on Channels Television on Thursday, led to a conspiracy to annul the 2023 presidential election as former military dictator Ibrahim Babangida did in 1993 to deny the election victory of Moshood Abiola.
“History was about to repeat itself, some people were determined to take us back to those days,” Soyinka said.
“I am alleging that there was a conspiracy from the very beginning before the election to make sure the election did not take place or that even if the voting did take place, that everything be reverted to what happened under Babangida, when we all just woke up and discovered that even though the results had been calculated, even though the results were in possession of international bodies, including monitoring embassies and so on, even if we had the results directly, it was suddenly annulled.
“It was no longer a contest between individuals, it was now a contest between the so-called interim political party and democracy. When you have a binary like that, I have no doubt or hesitation about what side of the barricade my position should be.”
Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, Labour Party (LP) Vice Presidential candidate, had advocated in a television interview for Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Kayode Ariwoola not to swear in Tinubu as elected President because of dispute over the ballot.
Soyinka said Baba-Ahmed’s comment was “disgraceful and menacing. That interview by Datti, that disgraceful and menacing interview, was for me the ultimate signal because this was somebody calling for the rubbishing of a structure his principal profited to become a Governor.”
The Supreme Court on 26 October 2023 dismissed the petitions of Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the LP which challenged the declaration of Tinubu as winner of the presidential poll on 25 February 2023.
