Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has denounced the utterances of the Labour Party’s vice presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu should not be sworn in on May 29.
Soyinka, in a statement on Tuesday said the utterances of the vice presidential aspirant was unbecoming and a gladiatorial challenge directed at the judiciary and, by implication, the rest of the democratic polity.
He said: “I denounced the menacing utterances of a Vice-Presidential aspirant as unbecoming. It was a gladiatorial challenge directed at the judiciary and, by implication, the rest of the democratic polity.”
He said this in an interview on Channels TV, where he also condemned the attacks on some electorates designated as ‘strangers’ in Lagos. The Nobel Laureate wondered why the media were silent on this aspect in their reporting.
“But what on earth has happened to my even more urgent condemnation of the physical violence inflicted on those designated “strangers” in Lagos in the lead up to, and during governorship elections?
“This prejudicial selectivity is a betrayal of trust, and I find it contemptuous of public deserving. My critique of incipient fascism in the movement remains grounded in indisputable evidence.
“I [will] continue to stress that the final word had yet to be pronounced on the elections – that omission renders the full message tendentious!” he said.
Baba-Ahmed had in an interview on Channels TV on 22 March, said swearing in Tinubu as president is “ending democracy” and a clear violation of the 1999 constitution.”
He asked Olukayode Ariwoola, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), not to participate in the swearing-in of Tinubu as president over what he described as a “violation” of the constitution.