He was responding to Soyinka’s challenge to a one-on-one argument over the viewpoint he had previously spoken in an interview.
Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, the Labour Party’s vice presidential nominee, has stated that there is no political justification for debating the results of the February 25 presidential election with Prof. Wole Soyinka.
Soyinka challenged him to a one-on-one discussion over his opinions on the validity of Bola Tinubu’s inauguration, but Baba-Ahmed ordered him to bring his favoured candidates to debate him instead.
The LP vice-presidential candidate said in a statement released by the Obi-Datti Media Office on Saturday that he did not decline Soyinka’s invitation out of timidity but rather for cultural and political considerations.
He said that the fact that the renowned author was not on any of the competing candidates’ ballots in the election was one of the reasons he would not debate the man. Datti, on the other hand, stated that he was ready to face off against them provided Soyinka could utilise his connections to bring forth his selected candidates for the discussion.
On March 22, Baba-Ahmed urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chief Justice of Nigeria not to appoint Tinubu as president-elect after INEC had proclaimed him the winner. Baba-Ahmed insisted that doing so would violate the constitution. He also demanded that Tinubu be given a certificate of return.
The 53-year-old, who was a guest on Channels TV’s Politics Today, continued by stating that “whoever swears in Mr. Tinubu” has “finished democracy” in Nigeria, which upset Soyinka and other well-known Nigerians.
The Nobel laureate responded to Baba-divisive Ahmed’s stance by labelling it a “sort of do-or-die mentality and provocation” that goes against democratic principles.
Soyinka stated that it was inappropriate that the LP vice-presidential candidate sought to “dictate to the highest arbitrator of the nation.”
See full statement by the Obi-Datti Media Office below:
DATTI BABA-AHMED WILL NOT DEBATE PROF. SOYINKA. Like many Nigerians we are bewildered by the late hour intervention of our respected Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka in issues around the flawed 2023 elections.
Where was he all this while? One of those who should ordinarily and rightfully be honoured as the conscience of the nation, Prof. Soyinka is now criminalising dissent and infact weighing in on the side of fraud and injustice! We state therefore that the vice-presidential candidate of Labour Party, Dr. Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed cannot take up Prof. Soyinka’s offer of a public debate, not out of cowardice, but for cultural and political reasons.
Culturally it’s just not decent, their age and accomplishment gaps taken into account, for Datti to sit opposite the 88 year-old global icon and point out his folly to his face, even if the old man called for it. And politically there is no basis for such a challenge in that Prof. is not on any of the opposite ballots.
If however he can use his influence to drag his preferred candidates, who resisted debates throughout the campaign, to the studio this second, Datti says he is more than willing to take them on. Signed: Obi-Datti Media Office.
