.Says there was grand plan to annul 2023 presidential election
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has said some politicians in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) should be answering questions from anti-graft agencies over corrupt practices during their time in elected offices.
The elder statesman, who would turn 90 in July, spoke on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief yesterday. He stated that when it is time, he would beam his searchlight on such politicians and ask the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to go after them.
The revered rights activist and critic acknowledged that President Bola Tinubu was a “doughty fighter” during the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) days over three decades ago.
He said though somebody’s record must always be taken to account but he won’t allow past achievement of any individual to affect his opinion or criticism on any public issue.
Soyinka said: “Tinubu was a doughty fighter during the anti-Sani Abacha struggle. Even law recognises that somebody’s record must always be taken to account before you descend on that person for some kind of neglect, criminality, failure, whatever.
“However, I can never allow the past of any individual to twist my appeal on any urgent issue. I cannot say because you were a fighter during the NADECO struggle, I will sit down and watch you condone corruption, that includes failures.
“For instance, when it’s time, I’m going to look at those in his (Tinubu) government who should be under trial right now and yet who occupy critical positions in the ruling party.
“Are they asking questions from the EFCC? This and this individual who held this position at this time who had immunity at the time, no longer has immunity, ICPC, EFCC, what are you doing about them? What happened? We’ve been waiting.”
In December, Soyinka after a visit to President Tinubu’s Ikoyi residence, said his assessment of the current administration would come after Tinubu’s one first anniversary in office.
Soyinka further dropped another bombshell in his interview yesterday when he disclosed that there was a conspiracy to annul the 2023 presidential election.
While referring to the 1993 election cancelled by former military dictator, General Ibrahim Babangida (retd.), Soyinka said: “History was about to repeat itself, some people were determined to take us back to those days.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Tinubu as president-elect after polling 8,794,726 votes to win the 2023 presidential election.
The playwright said: “I am alleging that there was a conspiracy from the very beginning before the election to make sure the elections did not take place or that even if the voting did take place, that everything be reverted to what happened under Babangida, when we all just woke up and discovered that even though the results have been calculated, even though the results were in possession of international bodies, including monitoring embassies and so on, even if we had the results directly, it was suddenly annulled.
“It was no longer a contest between individuals, it was now a contest between the so-called interim political party and democracy. When you have a binary like that, I have no doubt or hesitation about what side of the barricade my position should be.”
While reacting to the comment of the vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, Datti Baba-Ahmed, Soyinka said it was “a disgraceful interview”.
Baba-Ahmed, a former House of Representatives member had asked the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kayode Ariwoola, not to swear in Tinubu as duly elected president of the country.
Soyinka described Baba-Ahmed’s comment as “disgraceful and menacing. At that interview by Datti, that disgraceful and menacing interview, was for me the ultimate signal because this was somebody calling for the rubbishing of a structure his principal profited to become a governor.”
The Supreme Court had in October 2023 dismissed the cases of Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the LP challenging the declaration of Tinubu as winner of the February 25 presidential poll.
A seven-judge panel had ruled without merit the opposition appeals over claims of fraud, electoral law violations, and Tinubu’s ineligibility to run for president.