Atiku, Obi caused own defeat at February poll, Soyinka insists.

Atiku, Obi caused own defeat at February poll, Soyinka insists.

.....Says politicians, cohorts should accept consequences of their choices.

From Nobel Laureaute Wole Soyinka yesterday came a fresh jibe at Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Mr. Peter Obi, both of who lost the February presidential election.

Soyinka said the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) were the architects of their own defeat.

“The ballot tally accurately reflected what happens when a political party splits itself in two, especially so critically close to an election,” he said in a statement in South Africa.

This comes on the heels of his statement earlier in the week that “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.”

The first statement had sparked angry reactions and insults from Obi’s supporters.

In Pic: Prof. Wole Soyinka Nobel Laureaute.

But an unperturbed Soyinka said yesterday that politicians and their cohorts should learn to take responsibility for the consequences of their choices within democratic options.

In yesterday’s statement entitled THE CAPE TOWN RE-ENTRY, the playwright 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.”

In his first intervention earlier in the week, he had said the LP leadership knew that Obi lost the election.

Speaking at an event entitled ‘The lives of Wole Soyinka’, the Nobel Laureaute said LP leadership was only trying to force a lie on Nigerians by claiming that Obi won the election.

He said: “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.

“Whereas it was a marvelous 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.”

He said the LP leadership was even out to instigate young Nigerians to protest 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.”