The Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka has described the comments by vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Datti Baba-Ahmed in a recent interview as containing “fascistic language”.
Soyinka spoke during a television interview on Wednesday.
On March 22, Datti, in an interview with Channels TV, said the country has no president-elect despite the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announcing Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election.
The LP vice presidential candidate said Tinubu would be leading an unconstitutional government if sworn into office because the APC candidate “has not met requirements of the law”.
“I have never heard anyone threaten the judiciary on television the way Datti did. I heard the kind of menacing, blackmailing language as that to which we were treated by Datti. That kind of do-or-die attitude and provocation is not what I think we have all been struggling for,” Soyinka said.
“Nearly the totality of Datti’s comment in the interview was unbecoming. It was like trying to dictate to the supreme arbiter of the nation, and whatever you think of the Supreme Court, it is an institution we all refer to sooner or later.
“But Datti kept saying, in his wisdom, that the Supreme coyurt must agree with me. That is what is known as fascistic language and it is not acceptable.”
On fake news, the Nobel laureate has been one of the most prominent victims of fake news in the country in recent years.
The latest was a viral social media post which claimed he endorsed Tinubu during the run-up to the presidential election.
Reacting to what he called “nauseating and praise-singing tracts”, Soyinka announced a $1000 reward for “anyone who can finger successfully the author of some of the tracts which have been attributed to me over the past six months”.
“Please beware of fake news. A lot of damage is being done by fake news. Even as recently as a few days ago. Some garbage, verbiage, nauseating and praise-singing tracts which we have seen so many times before have been resurrected and attributed to Wole Soyinka. It makes me sick. If people want to be praise singers let them do it in their own father’s name and leave Soyinka out of it,” he said.
“I want to use this opportunity to announce a reward of $1000 to anyone who can finger successfully the author of some of the tracts which have been attributed to me over the past six months.”
