A Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language, Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka Hon. FRSL known as Prof. Wole Soyinka, has insisted that Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did not win the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria.
Soyinka on Saturday noted that Obi “jointly with his erstwhile colleague of the PDP donated the outcome (of the presidential election) even before the voting.”
SaharaReporters had during the week reported how Soyinka stated categorically that Peter Obi, who came third at the presidential polls, did not win the 2023 presidential election.
Soyinka had stated this while speaking as a guest speaker at the 2023 ‘Africa in the World’ event, a festival that brings together the world’s most innovative thinkers and top leaders to platform invigorating ideas for fresh changes and sustainable solutions for African people.
The event started on Tuesday, September 12 and was scheduled to end on Saturday, September 16, 2023 at Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
In another statement on Saturday titled “The Cape Town Re-Entry” Soyinka reiterated his stance that Peter Obi and Atiku did not win the presidential election.
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.”
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