Nobel Prize winner Professor Wole Soyinka has challenged the Vice Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, to a one-on-one interview to discuss Nigeria’s democracy and history. This came after Datti Baba-Ahmed’s recent call for President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chief Justice of Nigeria not to swear in Bola Tinubu, whom INEC declared as the president-elect, insisting that doing so was against the constitution and would end democracy in Nigeria……Continue Reading
Soyinka criticized Datti Baba-Ahmed for his “kind of do-or-die attitude and provocation,” stating that it went contrary to democratic disposition. The revered poet condemned the LP’s vice presidential candidate for trying to “dictate to the supreme arbiter of the nation” and using fascist language. Soyinka’s comments were met with criticism from supporters of the LP’s presidential candidate and vice.
In response, Soyinka condemned the sanction against Channels TV and challenged Datti Baba-Ahmed to a one-on-one debate regarding his claims of Nigeria’s democracy ending if Tinubu is sworn in come May 29th. He also offered to engage with any nominee of Datti Baba-Ahmed on the same platform, without the interference of media trolls. Soyinka stressed that this offer should be taken seriously. He also noted that Nigerian democracy had witnessed retrogressive innovations, such as violence, ethnic profiling, and intimidation, which are easily overlooked when directed against dissenting voices.
