Obidient Lies
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Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka slams Nigerian opposition leader’s supporters for spreading Obidient lies
Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka on Wednesday slammed the Obidient movement and the Labour Party (LP) leadership for spreading lies that Peter Obi won the February 25 presidential election.
He said this during an event in his honour “The Lives of Wole Soyinka — A Dialogue” organised by Africa in the World in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
At the event he was asked about his reaction to the LP vice presidential candidate Datti Baba-Ahmed statements saying the constitution is dead if Bola Tinubu was sworn in, the Nobel laureate said the LP vice-presidential candidate’s words contained “fascistic language” and that has “never heard anyone threaten the judiciary on television the way Datti did”.
He then accused the supporters of Peter Obi known as “Obidients” for propagating the lie that Peter Obi won the election and forcing the lies on Nigerians.
He noted that Obi achieved “something remarkable” by breaking the monopoly of power established by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“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 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.”
Akowe with reports from Abuja
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