Playwright, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has termed as inappropriate and diversionary media reports that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25, 2023 poll, Peter Obi’s visit to his Abeokuta, Ogun State residence on Sunday was for reconciliation.
Soyinka spoke in a statement on Monday titled, “A visitation, and the allure of “reconciliation. ’’ Obi in a tweet after the visit noted among other things that he cherished the Sunday visit which was intended to “erase the needless misconceptions about the relationship between the great icon and the Obidient family.’’
READ ALSO: Soyinka speaks on BBNaija
The Nobel laureate had, on Channels TV and later on Arise TV, in April faulted the manner the vice presidential candidate of the LP, Datti Baba-Ahmed, attempted to dictate to the Supreme Court during an interview on Channels TV over the election won by the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
But the ‘Obidients,’ a term denoting Obi’s supporters, trolled Soyinka online, abusing him and an ex-deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Kingsley Moghalu, who in a tweet described Soyinka as a phenomenon that “unlettered and uncultured people may not fully understand in an age of lazy social media in which many don’t read or think deep.”
According to Punch, the Nobel laureate in two separate statements in April, “Fascism on course,’’ and “Media responsibility,” responded, saying that the seeds of incipient fascism in the political arena had evidently matured.
Commenting on the reports about Obi’s visit, the essayist stated, “Before it gains traction and embarks on a life of its own, I wish to state clearly that the word “reconciliation,” inserted into some reports of Peter Obi’s visit to me yesterday, Sunday, May 7, is a most inappropriate, and diversionary invocation.’’
He added, “Let me clarify: I know the entity known as Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party. I can relate to him. I know and can relate to the Labour Party on whose platform he contested elections. There are simply no issues to reconcile between those two entities and myself. However, I do not know, and am unable to relate to something known as the “Obidient” or “Obidient Family.” Thus, albeit in a different vein, any notion of reconciliation, or even relations – positive, negative or indifferent – with such a spectral emanation is simply grasping at empty air.
