Photo credit: Literary Hub,
Two options are open to those whose rights are violated during elections , either through voters suppression or through outright rigging, as we witnessed on February 25 and March 18, especially in Rivers and Lagos states.It is either you respond in kind, through protests, which may be physical, as taking to the trenches, or you challenge such psychological and physical violence through the due process of the law, and wait for the outcome of such legal disputation. But it is wrong for a litigant, haven submitted his/her complaints to legal process to now openly cast aspersion on the integrity of the arbitrators. through a mix of blackmail and threat, ss the vice presidential candidate of Labour party, did in his Channels tv outing.And Soyinka was right to condemn such attitude.And a contextual reading of Soyinka’s reported speech would reveal that Soyinka alluded to the obvious fact that the spokea persons of the other parties had not conducted themselves well, before and after the flawed elections.Yet, Soyinka said as much about his preference for Peter Obi, through his suggestion that the presidency ought to go Eastward.Towards that effect, according to him, he got across to the Labour party presidential candidate to have a check on the public conduct of membership of the Obedient movement. You only advice a person you love on what may cause a failure, otherwise, you allow him to wobble along the part of self destruct
Let’s us be clear, some of us who openly identify with Peter Obi, in spite of serial blackmailing from friends and associates, sometimes get a bit worried about the way some younger members of the Obedient movement went/go about on social media. That APC ‘yoruba rascals’ resorted to despicable conduct, in support of their presidential preference, does not mean a vanguard organization of a candidate of Obi’s profile should response in kind.That Obidents did not allow us to make the crucial distinction between them and the ethnic bigots and vote suppressors, through open threat was what got on Wole Wole Soyinka’s skin, and some of us share in his pains, and I had had cause to express my anxiety to some members of ‘Handshake Across the Niger’, a group of Igbo- Yoruba alliance I belong, in which course I had co-authored a book with a distinguished Igbo
Let’s be very clear, a Wole Soyinka does not need to pander to any interest by refusing to complain about a trait of tyranny.He has established himself beyond reasonable doubt on his abhorrence to any form.of tyrannical disposition or conduct. Thus, it was rather disgusting, reading some Obidients who has chosen to cast Soyinka as a ethnic champion, and that is in spite of his preference for a president of Igbo extraction. Let us even ignore the historical fact of his experiences in solitary confinement on account of his perceived support for the Biafra cause in season of distemper gone by, when war began where words was terminated.
Perhaps, if injured Obidents had taken to the streets to protest the seeming injustice in the elections, a Soyinka, with the trajectory of his political engagement, would not have openly condemn such political action, even if he may be seen calling for a kind of rapprochement, as he did when he traveled to the Eastern region to converse with Odumegwu Ojukwu on the need to avoid the tragic war of secession.
In the course of rightful indignation, let us be guided by history, lest needed allies are alienated
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