Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka has voiced concerns about an alleged conspiracy to annul the 2023 presidential election.
News About Nigeria gathered that Soyinka made these remarks on Wednesday, drawing parallels to the annulled 1993 election by former military dictator Ibrahim Babangida.
In the 1993 election, won by the late Moshood Abiola, Babangida’s annulment threw Nigeria into political turmoil.
Soyinka suggests that history could repeat itself, as there were indications of a premeditated plot to prevent the 2023 election from taking place.
He described the situation as an attempt to replicate the events under Babangida, where the election results were unexpectedly annulled.
He said, “An attempt was made to annul the (2023) election even before it took place. There were statements from respectable people who, for reasons best known to them, were calling for an interim government, and this was opposed.
“No sooner was the voting over that we had a letter directed to the then-president calling for the annulment of the result, even before there was time for verification, annulment through further examination of papers and all.
“I’m alleging that there was a conspiracy from the beginning, even before the election, to make sure that elections did not take place and that everything would happen… just like under Babaginda, where we all woke up and discovered that, even though the elections had been tabulated, suddenly it was annulled.”
Regarding the recent comment by Datti Baba-Ahmed, the vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, urging the Chief Justice of Nigeria not to swear in Bola Tinubu as president, Soyinka condemned the statement as ‘disgraceful and menacing’.
Baba-Ahmed had contested the election as Vice President to Peter Obi on the Labour Party’s platform.
The Supreme Court had dismissed the cases filed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party challenging Tinubu’s victory in the February 25 presidential poll.
The court ruled that the opposition appeals lacked merit on grounds of fraud, electoral law violations, and Tinubu’s eligibility to run for president.
The decision solidified Tinubu’s win and affirmed the legitimacy of the 2023 presidential election results.
