One-on-one debate: ‘Bring your candidates to the studio, Datti more than willing to take them on’ – LP camp declines Soyinka challenge

Media camp of the Peter Obi and Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed Campaign Organisation of the Labour Party (LP), Saturday, declined the challenge thrown by Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka to its vice presidential candidate, for a one-on-one television studio debate, last Wednesday.

The Obi-Datti media team said it declines the television studio challenge ‘not out of cowardice, but for cultural and political reasons.’

It would be recalled that last Wednesday, Prof Soyinka, challenged Dr Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed to a live television debate over the latter’s call to the judiciary not to swear-in the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, as, according to him, it is constitutional.

Speaking, penultimate Wednesday, Datti Baba-Ahmed while featuring as guest on a Channels Television programme, Politics Today, called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola, not to swear in Bola Tinubu, whom INEC declared as the president-elect, insisting that it was against the constitution.

Baba-Ahmed further stressed that ‘whoever swears in Mr Tinubu has ended Democracy in Nigeria,’ a position that did not sit well with Prof Soyinka.

Reacting to the interview that elicited great criticism from political stakeholders, as well as, a N5 million fine on the TV station slammed by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Prof Soyinka, while also featuring as guest on the programme, described the remarks as a ‘kind of do-or-die attitude and provocation,’ which according to him, ‘goes contrary to democratic disposition.’

Soyinka accused the LP vice-presidential candidate of attempting to ‘dictate to the supreme arbiter of the nation,’ adding that it was unacceptable.

“I have never heard anyone threaten the judiciary on television the way Datti did. I heard the kind of menacing, blackmailing language as that to which we were treated by Datti. That kind of do-or-die attitude and provocation is not what I think we have all been struggling for.

“Nearly the totality of Datti’s comment in the interview was unbecoming. It was like trying to dictate to the supreme arbiter of the nation, and whatever you think of the Supreme Court, it is an institution we all refer to sooner or later.

“But Datti kept saying, in his wisdom, that the Supreme Court must agree with me. That is what is known as fascistic language and it is not acceptable,” Soyinka said during the television programme.

However, responding to the challenge by Soyinka, Saturday, Chief Spokesperson of the Obi-Datti Campaign Council, Dr Tanko Yunusa, said its principal ‘cannot take up Prof. Soyinka’s offer of a public debate, not out of cowardice, but for cultural and political reasons.’

The group, however, urged the nobel laureate to instead 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.’

“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,” the statement by Yunusa read.

Soyinka’s comments have not go down well with supporters of the Obi-Datti platform who accused the Nobel laureate of arming himself with a gun and attempted hijacking a radio station in Ibadan to prevent them from declaring Samuel Akintola winner in an election deemed to have been rigged.

On 15 October 1965, Soyinka reportedly stormed the old Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), Ibadan to prevent the Premier of the defunct Western Region, Chief Ladoke Akintola, from declaring himself winner of an alleged rigged election, the Obi-Dattti supporters claimed, as they wondered why the same man would now suddenly turn around to frown as the same episode rehashed years later.

Others like chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former senator Shehu Sani have rejected Soyinka’s tagging of Obi-Datti supporters as fascists.

In tweets posted via his verified Twitter handle (@ShehuSani), Friday, the former senator representing Kaduna Central during the 8^th Assembly, wrote:

“The criticisms against the outcome of the general elections remains peaceful & Civil. It’s a major achievement in our democratic history that we are failing to appreciate.Yes, It’s not quiete & its never going to be quiet. If it’s quiet then it’s not democracy.

“In 2011, any northerner opposed to the ambition of Buhari was considered an infidel. After the elections, mobs resorted to violence & invaded the homes of members of the PDP & killed their family members & burned down their houses. If those were not fascists, Peter’s guys are not.”