Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, said he told the Presidential candidates of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, that they should leave the stage for fresh energies to assume the helm of affairs in Nigeria.
Soyinka, who spoke in an interview with Arise TV Today aired on Wednesday: “I told Atiku when he was contesting and came to see me in my Ikeja office few years ago; he came with Gbenga Daniel, my former Governor (of Ogun State).
“I said to him, ‘Listen, it’s about time you people left the stage. Why don’t you just go away. We need an infusion of fresh blood into the system’.
“But, for some people, maybe they read it as bloodletting. No I said infusion of fresh blood. I said so I cannot support you. I think your generation should quit.
“But, he wasn’t the only one. I then sought out the current President-elect, Tinubu and I gave him exactly the same message.
“I said: ‘Whatever you people are planning, I’m convinced that we need the young generation, new thinking, new sensibilities, new energies.’
“So, why don’t you just leave the stage. Let’s look for somebody, a really brilliant individual then use your entire influence to catapult that person to power. And this country will see a massive transformation.
“We spoke for about an hour and a half. And then, Bola Tinubu said, ‘No.’ He said there were still things he felt he could still contribute,.”
Earlier, the Nobel laureate said he also warned the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, on the excesses of the his supporters, otherwise known as ‘Obidients’.
Soyinka, in a statement titled “Media Responsibility” on Tuesday said his recent interview with Channels Television was misrepresented, with his remarks rendered unrecognisable.
The TV station had aired a one and half-hour interview with Soyinka a week ago on Monday.
Soyinka maintained that his rejection of fascism wasn’t new and that on three occasions, he was able to send a message to Obi, that, if he lost the election, it would be his followers who lost it for him.
He stated, “What I have read – at least, thus far – this morning, extracted from a one-and-a-half long interview, conducted a week ago with Channels Television, brings once more to the fore, the critical responsibility of the media in transmitting the spoken, even recorded – word to the public.
“This is especially crucial in a time of civic uncertainty. When remarks are taken out of context, spliced into a new one, provided a sensational headline, distortions become stamped on public receptivity, and the central intent of one’s remarks becomes completely unrecognisable.
“I denounced the menacing utterances of a vice-presidential aspirant as unbecoming. It was a gladiatorial challenge directed at the judiciary and, by implication, the rest of the democratic polity.
“But what on earth has happened to my even more urgent condemnation of the physical violence inflicted on those designated ‘strangers’ in Lagos in the lead up to, and during governorship elections?
“This prejudicial selectivity is a betrayal of trust, and I find it contemptuous of public deserving. My critique of incipient fascism in the movement remains grounded in indisputable evidence.”
Originally published in Vanguard
