Relationship between Obidients, Wole Soyinka remains firm - Obi insists
Obi said he has always held Soyinka in high esteem for what he has achieved and stood for in the struggle for a better Nigeria.
The Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, has maintained that the relationship between his supporters, otherwise known as Obidients, and literary icon, Prof. Wole Soyinka, remains untainted despite a recent back-and-forth.
Obi said this after he visited the Nobel laureate at his residence on Sunday, May 7, 2023.
This comes a few weeks after an online clash between Soyinka and Obi supporters following the playwright's criticism of the Labour Party Vice Presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed.
It'd be recalled that Datti, while appearing on a Channels Television programme, Politics Today, back in March, had threatened that democracy will end in Nigeria if President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kayode Ariwoola, sworn in the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on May 29, 2023.
Datti alleged that Tinubu was not constitutionally elected and therefore should not be sworn in as that would amount to a violation of the Nigerian constitution.
His comment attracted a lot of condemnation from various quarters and Soyinka, while also airing his disapproval during an interview on Arise Television, described Datti's choice of language as a call to fascism.
This didn't go down well with Obi supporters who also believed Tinubu has not duly earned the right to be sworn in as president and they pilloried the Nobel laureate which infuriated the Prof to fire back.
However, speaking after his visit to Soyinka on Sunday, Obi claimed that what played out between the literary icon and Obidients weeks ago was "misconstrued."
Taking to his Twitter page to share photos from the visit, he described the Nobel laureate as "a father whom I hold in very high esteem," while revealing that he had an enriching discussion with him about his aspirations for a better Nigeria.
Obi's tweet read: "Today, I visited one of Nigeria’s most revered figures and an international literary icon, Prof Wole Soyinka. Prof Soyinka has been a father whom I hold in very high esteem for what he has achieved and stands for in the struggle for a better Nigeria.
"His reputation as a fighter for justice and equity in our society has been legendary and we will NEVER ignore them. I had a very useful and enriching discussion about his aspirations for a better and greater Nigeria, and he shared a lot with me about his dream for a greater and more inclusive Nigeria. I reminded the Nobel laureate of the huge price he paid just before the outbreak of the civil war, fighting for the cause of the Igbos.
"I cherished this Sunday's visit which was intended to erase the needless misconceptions about the relationship between the great icon and the OBIdient family. -PO."
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