The Labour Party leadership reprimanded Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka for saying that the party was trying to trick Nigerians into thinking that Peter Obi, its presidential candidate, won the contentious February 25 election.
The protest has been raised in response to Soyinka’s statement made on Wednesday at an occasion called “The Lives of Wole Soyinka — A Dialogue,” which took place in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
The eminent author had emphasized that despite Labour Party leadership’s knowledge that Obi finished third, they continued to “gbajue” (force the public to believe a lie) the populace, particularly the younger generation.
The Obi camp and senior Labour Party members, however, took issue with his comments.
In a statement released in Abuja on Thursday, the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Obiora Ifoh, responded, describing Soyinka’s statement as not befitting of a man who is highly regarded as a detribalized statesman.
Ifoh further stated that they could not imagine the playwright succumbing to the “groupthink syndrome” based on primordial considerations in the release titled “Soyinka: Statesmen are not double-faced, not blind to the truth.”
When a group of people agrees on something without engaging in critical thought or weighing the pros and cons of different options, it is known as the groupthink syndrome.
Prof. Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian author with undeniably impressive literary accomplishments, the man said. We respectfully submit that his assessment of our party’s performance in the general elections of 2023 and his own personal opinion are incorrect. We will hold off on commenting until the Supreme Court issues its ruling because the facts are before the courts and we respect our judiciary.
We recognize that the literary giant was a person with feelings, and that he likely made his statements based on information that people who agree with the ‘Emilokan’ viewpoint provided to him.
It is very puzzling and unsettling that a detribalized activist like Soyinka would fall victim to the ‘groupthink syndrome’ that supports state capture by those on the criminal fringe by any means, based on primal considerations.
We greatly appreciate him for at least partially attributing the break in the two other parties’ previously held monopoly of power to the Labour Party and its presidential candidate.
The spokesman continued by expressing displeasure that Soyinka chose a position rather than denouncing irregularities in the run-up to the most recent general elections and the dismal job the Independent National Electoral Commission did.
However, Ifoh came to the conclusion that “Kongi” is a Nigerian and has an equal right to express his opinion.
“The 2023 general election was watched by everyone in the world, and there was a widespread condemnation of both the outcome and the process, particularly the “glitch” that only happened when transmitting presidential results to IREV. Kongi was supposed to remind INEC to keep its word, but not even a whisper came from him.
We won’t blame Soyinka’s misdiagnosis on selective amnesia, but we expected him to be a statesman because he erred on the side of caution, which is what we believed he was.
He added, “We want to also let him know that creating a new Nigeria is a dream whose time has come and Nigerian youth will not give up until such dream is realized.
