Datti Baba-Ahmed, vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, has taken umbrage at the remarks of Wole Soyinka, the Nobel laureate.
Baba-Ahmed said Soyinka’s comments on Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the LP in the last poll, should be dismissed as a distraction.
In an interview with Noble Eyisi, Soyinka said Obi should not vie for the presidency in 2027 because he is “unfit” to lead Nigeria.
Soyinka had accused Obi of encouraging the online vitriol often lobbed by his supporters — who are called ‘Obidients’.
In an interview on Arise Television, Baba-Ahmed said the Nobel laureate should rather respect himself instead of waiting for Obi to control the actions of his supporters.
The former senator said Obi would not join issues with Soyinka, adding that “intellect does not give one a right to insult anybody”.
“The learned elder statesman is scared in advance about what good Peter Obi would bring to Nigeria. He’s scared that the end is looking very likely for his principal, for bad governance,” Baba-Ahmed said.
“What Soyinka is doing now is an attempted distraction.
“Nobel laureates all over the world are loved and cherished by their people, not just their nationals but globally. I have never heard where Nobel laureates are insulted in the way that Wole Soyinka is.
“There is no way Peter Obi, with all the issues in front of him and my humble self, can control Obidients.
“Peter Obi entered a canoe without a life jacket and he paid for it. It is not the work of Peter Obi to control the Obidients, it is the responsibility of Wole Soyinka to maintain his respect and dignity.
“In the presence of all these politics, decent Nigerians should continue to offer respect to others.
“All he is trying to do is an attempted distraction which Peter Obi and I have excused ourselves from. We will not react to that Nobel laureate.
“What is Wole Soyinka at a time when the Nigerian armed forces are killing Nigerians by mistake? At a time when our currency is hopelessly depreciating and so many other issues.”
In 2023, Soyinka accused Baba-Ahmed of “fascistic language” and “threatening the judiciary” after the LP vice-presidential candidate said Bola Tinubu would be leading an unconstitutional government if sworn in as president.
Baba-Ahmed had maintained that the APC candidate did not “meet requirements of the law”.
[TheCable]