Labour Party (LP) has said its vice presidential candidate Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed will not engage in a debate with Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka over the outcome of the February 25 Presidential Election.
Gatekeepers News reports that Soyinka had challenged Datti to a debate after the LP vice presidential candidate declared that it would be undemocratic to swear in All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s President on May 29.
In reaction to the challenge, the LP in a statement released on Saturday by the Obi-Datti Media Office, said Datti would only engage Soyinka’s preferred candidates in a debate.
The party explained that Datti’s refusal to take Soyinka up on his offer was not out of cowardice but for cultural and political reasons.
Read full statement below:
DATTI BABA-AHMED WILL NOT DEBATE PROF. SOYINKA.
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. Signed: Obi-Datti Media Office.
