Chimamanda Adichie disagrees with Wole Soyinka over 2023 election

The famous Nigerian novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has replied the worldwide known Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka on his position on the vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Datti Baba-Ahmed.

While disagreeing with Soyinka, she said Datti Baba-Ahmed did not make fascist remarks.

She blamed the inability of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC to electronically transmit election results in real time for the confusion over the elections.

“Because I respect Soyinka a lot, I went back and watched the interview again. I think fascism is a really strong word, which often made me think of (Benito) Mussolini of Italy, we use it now. I do not see any reason Datti Baba-Ahmed’s interview should be termed fascist.”

The Informant247 recalls that Soyinka called out the supporters of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi who are also known as Obidients.

In a lengthy article released on Friday, Soyinka lambasted the LP candidate supporters for refusing to entertain corrective criticism.

He stated that the word ‘Obidients’ is one of the most repulsive, off-putting concoctions he has ever encountered in any political arena.

The Obidients had heavily criticised the literary guru following his comment that he told the presidential candidate to blame Obidients for his political defeat.

Soyinka had criticised Baba-Ahmed over his comments during a recent television interview.

Datti had said Senator Bola Tinubu is not the president-elect and called on the judiciary and President Muhammadu Buhari not to swear him in as president on May 29.

He said Tinubu would be running an unconstitutional government if Buhari hands over to him.

He said Tinubu has not met the constitutional requirements of the law to be declared winner of the election.

Soyinka replied him, ”His comments were unbecoming and a threat to the judiciary. It is a fascist language that alienates the people. It is unacceptable, and I refuse to be a part of it.”

Reacting, Adichie said she respects Prof Soyinka a lot.

She said, “I admire him, I respect him as a thinker and a writer. I think everyone should read ‘The Man Died and Ake’ his memoir is beautiful. But at the same time, I disagree very strongly with him about this particular issue.

“And actually because I respect Prof Soyinka, I went back to watch his interview. I had watched it when it aired because I thought I was missing something. And I think fascist is a really strong word. Fascist often makes me think of Muselini’s Italy.

“But I think we use it now to address a kind of authoritarianism and often populist, right-wing and like in Hungary and even the former American President.

“When you look at those situations, you can see why they have been termed fascist. And I did not see any reason that Mr Dati Baba Ahmed’s interview would have been termed fascist.

“I think he was making a very strongly felt point about the election but he was saying again which I thought seemed fairly reasonable is that if our democracy is rooted in our constitution, and you then swear in a person who is elected unconstitutionally, then you are in fact ending democracy. I think it’s quite a reasonable position.”

“Prof Soyinka himself, I think is fair to say that he is not given to restraint in language in general and so, maybe that is where the word fascist came from.”

She said, ” However, I have suggestions for what we could use fascist for. We could use fascist for INEC, because as it is right now, many Nigerians feel deeply cheated by INEC; deeply disenfranchised by INEC and their authoritarianism which obviously is the basis of fascism at the centre of manipulating an election.

“Because what you are doing is you are gagging people. You are forcibly taking away their voice. That is fascism. Fascism is all of the violence that happened during the election. Fascist is the way that some people remain silent about that violence. Fascist is a government that has come out to address the very tangible and palpable discontent in this country.

“I think that Prof Yakubu had an opportunity for heroism and I think he wasted it spectacularly. Because he could have very easily become the hero of not just Nigeria but Africa. I also think that President Buhari missed an opportunity for heroism. Maybe his last chance at heriosm … I wish that he had taken a page from former president Yar Adua who was a very good and moral man.”

The Informant247 recalls that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced Tinubu as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.

Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, have challenged the success of Bola Tinubu in court.