- Wole Soyinka accuses Peter Obi and Datti Baba-Ahmed of conspiring to annul the 2023 presidential election, fearing a return to dictatorship
- Soyinka criticizes Datti’s interview as disgraceful and menacing, expressing concerns about the threat to democratic structures and principles
Nobel laureate and esteemed elder statesman Wole Soyinka pointed fingers at Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed. Soyinka claimed they played pivotal roles in executing a script to annul the 2023 presidential election.
During an interview on Channels Television, Soyinka alleged, “There was a conspiracy from the very beginning, before the election, to ensure the elections did not take place or that, even if the voting occurred, everything would be reverted to what happened under Babangida.”
Referring to the 1993 election cancellation by former military dictator Ibrahim Babangida, Soyinka expressed concern, stating, “History was about to repeat itself; some people were determined to take us back to those days.”
Contrary to these allegations, the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Bola Tinubu president after securing 8,794,726 votes in the 2023 presidential election.
In response to a segment in Soyinka’s latest book, ‘Baiting Igbophobia: The Sunny Igboanugo Thesis,’ where he highlighted the comments made by LP’s vice-presidential candidate, Baba-Ahmed, Soyinka criticized it as “a disgraceful interview.”
Baba-Ahmed, a former House of Representatives member, urged Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kayode Ariwoola, not to swear in Tinubu as the duly elected president. Soyinka condemned this comment as “disgraceful and menacing.”
Soyinka emphasized his concerns, stating, “At 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 he profited from to become a governor. I am talking about Peter Obi; he was a judgment governor.”
He further critiqued Datti’s televised threat, saying, “Even before he attended the tribunal, his party, his spokesman, in this case, Datti, came on television to threaten everyone; to threaten hell if his interpretation of results was not upheld. This, for me, was amoral, politically amoral, socially amoral. It played to a certain script even if they didn’t know it.”
As of the reporting time, neither Obi nor Datti has responded to Soyinka’s latest comments. In a prior reaction, Obi had claimed that efforts were underway to portray him negatively, especially after the federal government labeled Datti’s statement as treasonous.
