Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka said he tried to discourage veteran politicians Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu from running for Nigerian president so that a younger candidate could emerge.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Lagos governor Bola Tinubu, both now president-elect, carried their parties’ flags in the presidential election on February 25.
Mr Abubakar, who finished second in the election, has been running for Nigeria’s presidency since 1992. Mr Tinubu, who led Nigeria’s economic nerve center from 1999 to 2007, called his presidential run a “lifelong ambition.”
Mr. Soyinka, on the other hand, believes the two old political warhorses should have left the stage to make way for “fresh blood.”
“I happen to be the person who told one of the candidates, former vice president Atiku, when he was contesting and came to see me in my office in Ikeja years ago. He came with Gbenga Daniel the former governor of Ogun state. I said to him listen, it’s about time you people left the stage. Why don’t you just go away? We need an infusion of fresh blood into the system,” Mr Soyinka revealed in an interview with Arise TV aired on Wednesday morning.
“To some people maybe they read it as bloodletting. No, I said an infusion of fresh blood. So I cannot support you, I think your generation should really quit.”
Mr Soyinka then added, “He wasn’t the only one. I then sort out the current president-elect Tinubu and I gave him exactly the same message. I said whatever you people are planning, I am convinced that we need a young generation. New thinking, new sensibilities, new energies.
“So why don’t you just leave the stage? Let’s look for somebody, a really brilliant individual and then use your influence to catapult that person to power and this country will see a massive transformation.
“We spoke for about an hour and a half and in the end, Bola Tinubu said no. He felt there were still things which he felt he can contribute”.
In a recent interview, the Nobel laureate also condemned the language and mannerisms advocated by the Labour Party’s vice presidential candidate, Senator Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed.
He stated that Mr Datti Baba Ahmed’s entire statement was unsuitable and that such behavior could jeopardize public debate.
“Nearly the totality of Labour Party’s Datti Baba Ahmed’s statement was unbecoming. Dictating to the supreme court. It is a fascistic language that alienates the people. It is unacceptable and I refuse to be a part of it,”
Mr. Soyinka discussed the significance and nature of civil action in a democracy.
“Civil action is always justifiable in any situation of discontent. But then we also must be very guarded in our statement and the nature of civil action.”
Mr. Soyinka condemned ethnic baiting and the suppression of votes cast by those regarded as strangers in Lagos state. He claimed that there was genuine targeting in areas of Lagos where the Igbo community was prominent.
He stated that such behavior was disgraceful and deserved to be condemned by all rational people.
