Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s (LP) candidate for president in the February 25 presidential election, has responded to Prof. Wole Soyinka’s claim that his supporters—commonly referred to as “Obidients”—are “fascists.”
Obi expressed his sadness over the exchange and reiterated his respect for Soyinka as a father.
On Monday, he responded to queries on the Prime Time programme of Arise Television.
He insisted that the opposition had also been involved and that those who are frequently referred to as being “Obidient” are not all on his side.
But Obi insisted that despite supposedly having a system in place to look out for them, young people have been deprived.
Recall that Soyinka accused Obidients of fascism in an interview with Channels Television.
The former governor of Anambra State claimed that his supporters had been driven to the brink and insisted that society had nothing to offer them.
He said, ”Prof is a well respected, revered personality in Nigeria and globally. And I have always respected him and he is a dear father to me. For me I was very very sad that there was such an exchange.
”Some of the ‘Obidients’, I must tell you, or people they mentioned that they are ‘Obidient’ are not entirely people who are with us.
“The opposition have also come into it. We don’t worry about that. But I was very sad there was such an exchange.
“I respect a father, but you have to understand this, these young people are people who have been so deprived by supposedly a system that is supposed to care for them.
“They have been pushed to the wall. Even me, the way they even react when I say things, I could feel their pain. I could feel it because I live in the same system that they are living in.
“When we were young, things were working. All of a sudden, it became a worse situation.”
“My own comment on that is that Prof remains a revered father, and I have kept respecting him for that.
“And of course the young ‘Obidients’ I feel for them, I wish you can feel what they are feeling, the pain.
“There is nothing the society is offering them, even when they try to do it on their own. This is a place you move around with a laptop, you will be arrested and labelled all sorts of names.
“This is a place where people are thrown into jail for even making comment, when people who have stolen billions of the country’s money, done worst things are moving around and celebrated.”