Wole Soyinka, Nobel laureate and a figure often surrounded by controversy, has advised Peter Obi, the 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, against running in the next presidential election.
Soyinka, who is notably involved in the founding of the Pyrates Confraternity (also known as the Seadogs), a secret society established at the University of Ibadan in 1952, criticized Obi and his team in a recent interview, questioning their competence to govern Nigeria based on their actions during the last election.
Soyinka accused Obi of orchestrating online trolls to insult him and other prominent figures who questioned the Labour Party’s campaign. These supporters, known as ‘Obidients,’ were particularly active on social media platforms, including X.
Soyinka stated, “It has to do with education. I didn’t read all these (insults by Obidient Movement) but of course, some links were sent to me, especially when facts were ‘being manufactured’.
“When I read these things, I was disgusted. There’s no other word for it. I really was disgusted and I know that it was orchestrated.
“I know that there is a relay mechanism, which is triggered into action by those who control what we call the trolls of the Internet, and so my disgust and contempt. I just went about my business, you know, because nobody, anybody on this earth who thinks they can stop me telling the truth as I see it needs to have his or her head examined. It’s as elementary as that.
“But it is depressing to see those who wanted to be political leaders encouraging that kind of action, that kind of attitude in the youth. And my mind went to the expression, ‘They don’t know what they’re doing’. Those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind.”
Reflecting on Obi’s candidacy, Soyinka concluded, “I hope for the sake of the nation that he doesn’t express interest in the next election because for me as a leader, if there was any proof that he was unfit to lead that country, it’s in the conduct which he encouraged among his followers.”
