Prof. Wole Soyinka, a Nobel laureate, claimed that he advised the presidential candidates of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, respectively, to step aside so that new blood could take the reins of government in Nigeria.
In an interview with Arise TV today, Wednesday, Soyinka made this revelation.
He said: “I told Atiku when he was contesting and came to see me in my Ikeja office a few years ago; he came with Gbenga Daniel, my former governor (of Ogun state).
“I said to him, ‘Listen, it’s about time you people left the stage, why don’t you just go away? We need an infusion of fresh blood into the system’.
“But, for some people, maybe they read it as bloodletting. No, I said infusion of fresh blood. I said so I can not support you. I think your generation should quit. But, he wasn’t the only one. I then sought out the current President-elect, Tinubu and I gave him exactly the same message.
“I said, ‘Whatever you people are planning, I’m convinced that we need the young generation, new thinking, new sensibilities, new energies’.
“So, why don’t you just leave the stage, let’s look for somebody, a really brilliant individual then use your entire influence to catapult that person to power, and this country will see a massive transformation.
“We spoke for about an hour and a half, and then Bola Tinubu said, ‘No’. He said there were still things he felt he could still contribute,” Soyinka said.
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Remember that the Nobel Prize winner had earlier stated that he had also warned Peter Obi, the presidential candidate for the Labour Party, LP, about the excesses of his fans, also known as “Obidients.”
This was said by Soyinka in a statement on Tuesday under the heading “Media duty.”
