Soyinka says OBIDIENTS are ‘being mumu, playing the script of others’

Noble laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has suggested that some supporters of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, popularly known as ‘Obidients’ are naive while playing the script of some political actors.

Soyinka stated this on Friday during a question-and-answer session at the launch of his book titled “The Putin Files: Excursions Around The Ideology Of Pain”, the latest in the popular Interventions series in Lagos.

He said long before the election, some people had schemed to tilt the country towards having an interim government.

Although Soyinka in his speech did not specifically mention the OBIdients, it was thought he was referring to them, based on how they railed against him, before the 2023 elections in response to some comments he had made.

“That tendency had been apparent even before the election,” he said.

“So some of those who thought they were being radical, they were being ‘mumu’ (foolish), and “playing the script of others”.

Read Also: Peter Obi’s visit not about reconciliation – Soyinka

The Nobel laureate said that he knew that after his statement on Friday, a mob of Obidients would again launch an attack against him online by opening what he described as their “dictionary of abuses”, adding that he would be happy to face them.

“They can go back to the internet, open their dictionary of abuses and start all over again, I will come back and tell them that you are ‘mumu’ (foolish). You were not playing your script,” he said.

Soyinka in an interview with Channels Television before the February 25 presidential election said that if Obi lost the election, it would be his followers who lost it for him.

This led to an outrage with Obidients lashing out at him on social media and on some mainstream media.

But responding to the Obidients’ disparaging comments against him, Soyinka through a statement titled, ‘Fascism on course’ said the “seeds of incipient fascism in the political arena have evidently matured.”

He added, “It would appear that a record discharge of toxic sludge from our notorious smut factory is currently clogging the streets and sewers of the Republic of Liars. It goes to prove the point that provoked the avalanche Exactly!

“A climate of fear is being generated.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now