The leadership of the Labour Party has lambasted Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, over his comment that Peter Obi attempted to deceive Nigerians that he won the 2023 presidential election.
A statement on Thursday by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Obiora Ifoh, excoriated Soyinka for his comment noting that he may have been brainwashed by those he said shared ’emilokan’ sentiment.
Emilokan, a Yoruba word that means “It’s my turn” became popular after Bola Tinubu, then presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, used to make case for his aspiration why no one, not even then President, Muhammadu Buhari, should stand against his bid to become Nigerian President.
The Labour Party chided Soyinka for not being properly informed for insinuating that Obi was out to deceive Nigerians when in actual fact he lost the election.
The Nobel Laureate had, while speaking at an event in Stellenbosch, South Africa titled, “The Lives of Wole Soyinka — A Dialogue,” stated that Obi knew he came third in the election but that he had tagged along the Labour Party “to force a lie on the people, especially the youthful population.”
Describing Soyinka’s words as an uncharitable remark, the Labour Party said, “Prof. Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian whose accomplishments in the literary world are without doubt intimidating.
“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.
The party in the statement titled, ‘Soyinka: Statesmen are not double-faced, not blind to truth,’ further said, “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 and 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 credits to the Labour Party and its presidential candidate for breaking the monopoly of power hitherto held by the two other parties.”
The party added that, “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.
“We want to also let him know that building a New Nigeria is a dream whose time has come and Nigerian youths will not relent until such a dream is realised,” the statement said.