Soyinka: Peter Obi Had Remarkable Run, But Did Not Win Presidential Election

*Explains why he forcibly halted announcement of poll results in 1965 

*Says he would only join protest based on truth, not deceit 

*Alleges ex-military rulers planned using LP to install interim govt. 

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Globally recognised playwright and Africa’s first Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, has doubled down on his criticism of the Labour Party (LP) and the tactics deployed in the last presidential election in which its candidate, Peter Obi, was declared to have emerged third by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In a one hour, 44 minutes , 20 seconds recording of a programme he attended in South Africa, the renowned political activist insisted that although Obi had a remarkable run by breaking the mould of a two-party election, he (Obi) did not win the poll.
Soyinka was speaking as a guest speaker at the 2023 ‘Africa in the World’ event, at Stellenbosch, anchored by Okey Ndibe, a novelist and columnist.
According to the organisers of the event, which started on Tuesday and is scheduled to end on Saturday, the festival brings together the world’s most innovative thinkers and top leaders to the platform to enunciate invigorating ideas for fresh changes and sustainable solutions for African people.

But the Abeokuta, Ogun state-born octogenarian, also alleged that without the knowledge of many members of the party, LP was being used by reactionary forces, mostly ex-military generals to install an interim government in the country prior to the election.
Soyinka, who maintained that Obi did not even come second in the presidential poll, said he had members of his organisation, also collating the results of the polls while the election was being conducted.

He insinuated that the LP which started out as a national party suddenly became a regional movement, disclosing that for three consecutive times, he sent messages to the ‘leader’ of the party to prevail on his supporters to tone down the threats and abusive language being used.
“Now, this recent election, it’s unfortunate that…because two things happened. First of all, but which party isn’t, but in any case, in this particular instance, one party took over the labour movement, which is my favourite movement also.

“Then, it became a regional party…whereas it was a marvellous breach into the established two camps. Peter Obi achieved something remarkable there: that he broke that mould. Yes, however, he did not win the election,” he said.
The professor of comparative literature and creative writing maintained that the party leadership knew that LP did not win the election but had continued to take actions based on what he described as a ‘lie’.

He added: “So, I could say categorically that Peter Obi’s party came third, not even second and that the leadership knew it, but they wanted to do what we call in Yoruba ‘Gbajue’. That is, you know you have force of arms, you also have force of lies.”
Soyinka further alleged that the members of the LP were being clandestinely used by some forces, which many of them were not even aware of, wondering why ‘a proprietor’ of a university was calling for an interim government even before the poll took place.

“In addition, and this is the worst part, they didn’t know it, but they were being used. Before the elections ever took place, there was a certain clandestine force– reactionary. It included some ex-generals who were already calling for an interim government before the elections began.

“Some were well-known figures, including even the proprietor of a university calling for an interim government before elections ever took place. So, the party was playing into their hands. Maybe not consciously – all of them – but some were definitely trying to create a situation to bring back the military,” he argued.
According to him, he sent emissaries three times to the party to curb their public statements, stressing that the party was also bent on sending its young people to the streets to be slaughtered.

“If you lose an election the first time, that doesn’t matter. I said, ‘Tell them to stop threatening, stop intimidating people. So, it wasn’t something new, though I had to stop their getting the youths on the streets to be slaughtered. And for what? For a lie. That for me was unacceptable,” he remarked.
Soyinka contended that the difference between his bold move to forcibly stop the announcement of an election in Ibadan in 1965 was that while his own was based on the truth and a conviction, Obi’s movement was based on falsehood.

“Truth matters to me; our problem is that many people, they look for shortcuts. Well, I do too sometimes, but I do my homework first. The election you talked about which took place in the Western region, the notorious gunman episode which in fact has been a long time.
“I have insisted on being coy about it, I always said, I’m sorry, I was tried and I was acquitted, which is true. I’d say ‘don’t you believe in the Nigerian judiciary. What more do you want me to say?

“But I want to stress the fact that I was right in the thick of that election. I also collaborated with a radio unit installed in Oke-Ado through which we were announcing the correct results as we obtained them from the various polling booths.

“In other words, we had the facts on our hands. And the deputy prime minister went on air to boast that they had won. It was a fascistic regime. Before the election, he went on air and said, ‘We don’t need anybody to vote for us. Whether you vote for us or not, the angels in heaven have already voted us in.’
“That was his statement on the radio. They were determined and they were a brutal lot. The atrocities which they committed; we witnessed them first-hand ,so I wasn’t relying on third-hand information about the election results. We contested throughout; we did our work solidly,” he insisted.

The playwright, who spoke on other sundry issues, including the lull in student activism, the Russia invasion of Ukraine, his seeming inability to retire from writing, his struggles during the military era in Nigeria and the apartheid regime in South Africa, stated that he will be the first person to join a protest if founded on the truth.
“I’m always ready to be among the demonstrators, but only on the banner of truth, not of lies, not of deceit. We have had that kind of scenario before. Remember this person, Buhari. He’s a us**less person anyway. In which, the youth corpers were killed.
“You know, the students were recruited as monitoring agents, returning officers and so on. Because of the uniforms they became targets. I was instrumental in working with some of the governors in extricating those youths from where they were hiding. They were brutalised.
“And now this party wanted the same thing to happen and on the basis of a lie. And we found this vice presidential candidate on television boasting and insisting and threatening and menacingly trying to intimidate both the judiciary and the rest. What kind of government would result from that kind of conduct?,” he queried.
Apart from INEC which declared that Obi came third in the election, the presidential election tribunal had also recently dismissed the case brought before it by the LP and other parties, urging it to overturn the poll.