Soyinka denies discussing reconciliation with Peter Obi during their visit
Nobel laureate and renowned writer, Wole Soyinka, has denied discussing “reconciliation” during his meeting with Labour Party presidential candidate in the last general elections, Peter Obi, on Sunday, May 7.
Soyinka’s denial followed reports in some quarters that “reconciliation” was discussed during the meeting.
In a statement on Monday, Soyinka said: “Before it gains traction and embarks on a life of its own, I wish to state clearly that the word ‘Reconciliation’, inserted into some reports of Peter Obi’s visit to me yesterday, Sunday, May 7, is a most inappropriate, and diversionary invocation.”
Soyinka went on to clarify that there were no issues to reconcile between himself and Obi or the Labour Party on whose platform he contested elections.
However, he said he was unable to relate to something known as the “Obidient” or “Obidient Family”.
“Before it gains traction and embarks on a life of its own, I wish to state clearly that the word ‘Reconciliation’, inserted into some reports of Peter Obi’s visit to me yesterday, Sunday, May 7. is a most inappropriate, and diversionary invocation. Let me clarify: I know the entity known as Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party.
“I can relate to him. I know and can relate to the Labour Party on whose platform he contested elections. There are simply no issues to reconcile between those two entities and myself. However, I do not know, and am unable to relate to something known as the ‘Obidient’ or ‘Obidient Family’. Thus, albeit in a different vein, any notion of Reconciliation, or even relations – positive, negative or indifferent – with such a spectral emanation is simply grasping at empty air.
“During that meeting, attended by two other individuals only, the word ‘Reconciliation’ was never bruited, neither in itself nor in any other form. It simply did not arise. By contrast, there were expressions of ‘burden of leadership’ ‘responsibility’, ‘apology’, ‘pleading’, ‘formal dissociation from the untenable’,,,.all the way to the ‘tragic ascendancy of ethnic cleavage’, especially under such ironic, untenable circumstances. Discussions were frank, and creative. The notion of Reconciliation was clearly N/A – None Applicable. It was never raised,” he said.
Soyinka further called attention to his previous essays on the theme of reconciliation and the ethical imperative of restitution.
He also announced that he will offer further elaborations on the subject in “Democracy Primer III – Bookcraft’s INTERVENTION series,” which will be published on June 12, Nigeria’s Democracy Day.
“If, from here on, I now comply with entreaties from several valued, genuinely concerned directions, and ignore new provocations, however vile, it is only because I also approve of Mohammed Ali’s strategy of Rope-a-Dope, where blind menace is left flailing hopelessly at the disdainful manifest of Truth,” Soyinka added.
Soyinka had last month engaged in a war of words with Obi’s supporters, known as Obidients, after he criticised the vice presidential candidate of the LP, Datti Baba-Ahmed, over his comments during an interview on Channels TV.
He went ahead in an article to accuse the “Obidients” of fascism, saying they don’t entertain corrective criticism.
