Politics

Soyinka: Why Tinubu won 2023 election

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, says the electoral victory of President Bola Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election was aided by the participation of presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, respectively, on different political parties.

Soyinka stressed that Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, and ex-Vice President Atiku did not win the February 25 election.

The Nobel Laureate said this during a dialogue organised by ‘Africa in the World,’ in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

According to the statement issued on Saturday, September 16, 2023, the revered playwright urged politicians to learn to take responsibility for the consequences of their choices.

Soyinka said: “The mistake we all continue to make is our insistence on regarding the recent Nigerian elections as an adversarial thriller.

“The contrary is the truth. The ballot tally accurately reflected what happens when a political party splits itself in two, especially so critically close to an election.

“What promised to be a spectacular contest is transformed into a Feast of Voluntary Donation of the spoils of war.

“That, however, is not always the ultimate destination – the re-gifting may continue, prodded by a sudden surge of regret. There remains, lurking in the background, a far more potent beneficiary.

“In this case, we easily recall it as the unregistered but loudly canvassed IPP – the Interim Peoples Party, usually to be found in bed with the military. The notorious Datti interview, menacing, intimidating and unambiguous, sets the scene for such re-entry.

“Then, history repeats itself over and over again, as currently manifested along the West African sub-region. The ‘call to arms’ is made literal by those whose trade is precisely that of arms.

“Barring such abrupt ‘patriotic intervention,’ however, the last word belongs to the Supreme Court. Until that conclusive hour, wherever and whenever the subject turns to the Nigerian elections, my contribution can be taken for granted in advance: Peter Obi did not win the Nigerian 2023 elections. Jointly with his erstwhile colleague of the PDP, Abubakar Atiku, they donated the outcome, even before the voting.

“Let politicians and their cohorts learn to take responsibility for the consequences of their choices within democratic options.”

It would be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on March 1, 2023, announced that Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC) won the presidential election ahead of 17 other candidates who participated in the election.

INEC declared that Tinubu scored 8,794,726 votes to defeat the two major contenders – Atiku, who came second with 6,984,520 votes, and Obi, who came third with 6,101,533 votes.

The Star