Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka has slammed the vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Datti Baba-Ahmed, over his outburst in a recent television interview.
Recall that Datti, in an interview with Channels TV, had said the country has no president-elect and called on the judiciary and President Muhammadu Buhari against swearing Bola Tinubu as the President on May 29.
Baba-Ahmed also claimed that Tinubu would be leading an unconstitutional government if sworn into office because the APC candidate has not met the requirements of the law.
But in a chat with Arise TV on Wednesday, Soyinka said the whole comments by Baba-Ahmed during the interview were unbecoming, adding that statements contained fascistic language.
He described Baba-Ahmed’s remarks as a “kind of do-or-die attitude and provocation” that goes contrary to democratic disposition, stressing that he has no right to threaten the judiciary.
The Nobel laureate said it was unacceptable that the LP vice-presidential candidate tried to “dictate to the supreme arbiter of the nation”.
He said: “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.
“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 Court must agree with me. That is what is known as a fascistic language that alienates the people. It is unacceptable and I refuse to be a part of it.”
OsunDaily News reports that following Baba-Ahmed’s interview, the Director of Media and Publicity of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC PCC), Bayo Onanuga, petitioned the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and called for the punishment of Channels Television.
Thereafter, the Commission fined the broadcast station N5 million for allegedly contravening the NBC code and giving its platform for inciting comments.
