Labour Party Criticizes: The Labour Party leadership has taken issue with Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, over his accusations that the party is trying to deceive Nigerians into believing that its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, won the disputed February 25 election.
Soyinka made these remarks during an event titled ‘The Lives of Wole Soyinka — A Dialogue,’ held in Stellenbosch, South Africa, on Wednesday. He asserted that the Labour Party was well aware that Obi had come in third place, but the party’s leadership continued to perpetuate a falsehood, especially among the youthful population.
Labour Party Criticizes Soyinka
Soyinka’s comments did not sit well with the supporters of Peter Obi and prominent members of the Labour Party.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday, the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Obiora Ifoh, criticized Soyinka’s remarks, noting that such comments were unexpected from a highly respected and impartial statesman.
In the statement titled ‘Soyinka: Statesmen are not double-faced, not blind to the truth,’ Ifoh further expressed surprise that the celebrated playwright would succumb to the ‘groupthink syndrome,’ which involves reaching a consensus without critical evaluation or consideration of consequences or alternatives.
Ifoh stated, “Prof. Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian whose accomplishments in the literary world are without doubt intimidating. However, we beg to disagree with his prognosis and personal opinion on the performance of our party during the 2023 general elections. 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.
“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 detribalized 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 credit to the Labour Party and its presidential candidate for breaking the monopoly of power hitherto held by the two other parties.”
The spokesperson expressed disappointment that Soyinka chose to take a side rather than condemn anomalies in the lead-up to the last general elections and the poor performance of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Soyinka is entitled to his opinion as the Nigerian Labour Party Criticizes
Ifoh, however, concluded that ‘Kongi’ is a Nigerian and is entitled to his opinion.
“The whole world followed the 2023 general election, and there was global condemnation not only of the election’s outcome but also of 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 realized,” he said.Source
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