Nobel laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has firmly maintained that Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, did not emerge victorious in the February 25th election.
In a statement issued on a Saturday, Soyinka emphasized that he believed both Peter Obi and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, had faced a significant challenge even before the commencement of the election.
Earlier in the week, during an event in South Africa, Professor Soyinka expressed his view that the Labour Party was disseminating false information to the Nigerian public by claiming Peter Obi had emerged as the victor in the election.
Apparently reacting to the controversy stirred by his comments, Soyinka said the ballot tally accurately reflected what happens when a political party splits itself in two.
He said, “The mistake we all continue to make is our insistence on regarding the recent Nigerian elections as an adversarial thriller. The contrary is the truth. The ballot tally accurately reflected what happens when a political party splits itself in two, especially so critically close 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.”
Obi left the PDP just before the party’s presidential primary and secured the Labour Party’s ticket.
