Popular Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, has doubled down on his castigation and denigration of supporters of Peter Obi of the Labour Party, over their role in the recently concluded 2023 general election.
Soyinka said the actions of Obi’s supporters, popularly known as the Obidients, are akin to those of erstwhile President Muhammadu Buhari supporters in 2011.
Wole Soyinka spoke at the launch of his book, “The Putin Files: Excursions Around The Ideology Of Pain”, on Friday, maintained that the Obidients were fascist.
He was responding to a lawyer and poet Ogaga Ifowodo’s question about why he called Obidients fascists.
He said the 2020 EndSARS protest was an example of a movement propelled by pure truth.
According to him, EndSARS is one of the most successful movements in this country.
Soyinka noted that he supported the EndSARS protest and even addressed some protesters when leaving Lagos for Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
Comparing the EndSARS protest with the Obidient Movement, Soyinka pointed out that what the Obidients were trying to do was “the mobilization of youth to defend an untruth”.
Soyinka likened most actions of the Obidient Movement to former president Muhammadu Buhari, “pushing people to kill innocent serving members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) by claiming he was cheated out of an election”.
He said long before the election; some people had schemed to tilt the country towards having an interim government.
“So some of those who thought they were being radical, they were being ‘mumu’ (foolish) and “playing the script of others,” Soyinka declared.
Recall that Obidients criticized Soyinka in May after describing them as fascists.