In reiteration of what he said earlier in Cape Town South Africa which attracted flaks from his critics, Professor Wole Soyinka has insisted again that Peter Obi of Labour Party did not win the 2023 Presidential election.
Below is Soyinka’s statement:
THE CAPE TOWN RE-ENTRY
Wole Soyinks
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 politi-cal 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 unambigu-ous, 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 pre-cisely 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 contribu-tion 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 vot-ing.
Let politicians and their cohorts learn to take responsibility for the consequences of their choices within democratic options.
Wole SOYINKA
Stellenbosch, South Africa