Soyinka’c comment unbecoming of statesmen – LP
The Labour Party (LP) has given its riposte to the comment by Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka over his comment on its former presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
Soyinka had said that the LP’s leadership knew Obi did not win the 2023 presidential election but decided to foist a lie on the populace by insisting otherwise. Soyinka made his comment in on Wednesday at an event, titled ‘The Lives of Wole Soyinka—A Dialogue’ in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
The LP, in its reaction made by its national publicity secretary Obiora Ifoh, said that Soyinka’s statement was unbecoming of a highly revered and detribalised statesman.
Ifoh accused Soyinka of being “double-faced” and “blind to the truth”. He said the literary giant was merely succumbing to the ‘groupthink syndrome’ based on primordial considerations.
He said, “Prof. Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian whose accomplishments in the literary world are without doubt intimidating. However, we beg to disagree with his prognosis and personal opinion on the performance of our party during the 2023 general elections. The facts are before the courts and, out of respect for our judiciary, we will reserve our comments until the Supreme Court makes a final pronouncement.
“We understand that the literary giant is human and thus susceptible to emotions and probably said what he said based on information made available to him by those who share the ‘Emilokan’ sentiment.
“It is most befuddling as well as disconcerting that a detribalised activist like Soyinka would succumb to the ‘groupthink syndrome’ that subscribes to state capture by those belonging to the criminal fringe by any means, based on primordial considerations.
“We really appreciate him for at least giving some credit to the Labour Party and its presidential candidate for breaking the monopoly of power hitherto held by the two other parties.”
“The whole world followed the 2023 general election and there was a global condemnation on not only the outcome of the election but also the process, particularly, the ‘glitch’ that occurred only during the transmission of presidential results to IREV. We didn’t hear as much as a whisper from Kongi on reminding INEC to stand by its word.
“We will not allege selective amnesia as the reason for Soyinka’s wrong prognosis but we would have expected him to be a statesman, which we thought he was by remaining on the side of caution.”
