GUEST COLUMN: When Soyinka Got Caught in OBIdients’ Needless Brawls
By Ozumi Abdul
AREWA AGENDA – They are never tired of verbally haranguing their ‘opponents’. Or better still, persons whose sentiments differ from theirs. Hence, no one, absolutely will go unscathed from the OBIdients’ venomous and vituperative tirades, denunciation, diatribe, fulmination, harangue, invective, bashing, bullying and jeremiad in as much as you have dissenting political views and opinions from theirs. No matter how highly placed you are.
But one thing that is really shocking is the manner of the Obidients’ tactical manoeuvering, from being the culpable aggressors to paradoxical paranoiac victims, just to attract cheap empathy and sympathy. In fact,
they can be likened to metaphoric bats, that are neither birds nor rats, but bite and hide. Seku seye, as a Yoruba adage would always imply.
This quickly reminds me of the character of King Odewale in the Ola Rotimi’s *the gods are not to blamed* I read almost two decades ago as a literature student during my secondary school days.
In the play, (the gods are not to blame) Odewale atrocities of incest by marrying off his biological mother Queen Ojuola, and killing his father, King Adetusa which brought about the land of Kutuje being ravaged by a pestilence and virtually every family, including the King’s family, was affected, was tactically blamed on Aderopo, by King Odewale.
So, King Odewale being the cause of the curses, of the pestilence (though unknowingly) plaguing the land of Kutuje now chose to play the victim’s card by accusing Prince Aderopo, his biological brother of the plot to overthrow him, with conspiracy with Baba Fakunle, the old blind seer, then swore never to set his eyes on Aderopo again, and therefore banished him from Kutuje kingdom.
This and more are Obidients’ tactical wild cards, and the latest victim to have been caught in their raging and indiscriminate crossfire of assaults and insults now is Professor Wole Soyinka, Africa’s one of the most celebrated and venerated literary icons.
They recently unleashed their venom on Soyinka for daring to criticise Obi’s running mate, LP vice-presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, over the latter’s comments during a recent interview.
Soyinka had questioned Datti’s addressing of the Supreme Court in “fascistic language.”
Datti had on air, said that the country had no president-elect, despite the outcome of the last February 25 presidential election where the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election.
He added that Tinubu would be leading an unconstitutional government if sworn into office because the APC candidate “has not met requirements of the law.”
The interview did not go down well with many, especially the opposition. It equally elicited criticism from diverse segments of the public. Subsequently, the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) sanctioned the TV station for airing a “volatile broadcast capable of inciting public disorder and violating sections of the broadcasting code,” as well as a N5 million fine.
Irked by this, Soyinka’s take on the issue was characteristically blunt. He wondered why the LP vice-presidential candidate tried to “dictate to the supreme arbiter of the nation”. He went on to accuse Datti of broad-daylight blackmailing of the judiciary. His comments were unbecoming and a threat to the judiciary. It is a fascist language that alienates the people. It is unacceptable, and I refuse to be a part of it.
Soyinka believes that Datti’s commentary presents a false narrative of the supporters of the party, especially the “Obidient” family, thus fanning the flames of fascism in politics.
The Nobel laureate didn’t stop there, but lamented the ethnic tension that marred the Guber elections, while also condemning the attacks on non-indigenes in various states, especially in Lagos State, where violence and open threats broke out.
As usual and expectedly, Obidients once again come out all gun blazing, launched attacks on the octogenarian by referring to him as the “enemy of Obidients”.
Recalling, the playwright recalled that he had warned Obi that if he lost the presidential election, it would be as a result of his followers’ attitude. But clearly, Obidients have metamorphosised into a social media lynch mob, attacking opponents in packs and tyrannising those who do not share their views.
In fact, our polity has never been this polarized along ethnic and religious lines, our ethnic and religious mutual distrusts, suspicions, skepticisms and misgivings have never been this exacerbated to this boiling points.
The Obidients are enablers in chief of all these.
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They saw Obi’s presidential ambition as “theirs”, with the relics of Igbocentricism and Christaincentrism dotting it, while ignorantly forgetting the grave and great damages they are inflicting on the soft-spoken former Imo governor’s immediate political ambition and his distant future political career in a multi ethnic and religious entity like Nigeria. In fact, in my opinion, they never liked Obi.
Regional politics or parties had never won and will never win presidency as far as Nigeria’s democracy is concerned. Thus, the 25 percent of Votes in Two-thirds of 36 States as one of the key requirements by the constitution before a president can emerge in a presidential election is not a rhetoric, rather a reality.
The Obidients somewhat rolled back the years when the then General Muhammadu Buhari (now President Buhari) used to contest and lost elections with his regional parties, such as the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) from 2003 to 2007,and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) platform in 2011.
In these three elections he contested in, Buhari normally won the North handsomely then, while falling short in other regions, particularly the South East and South South that were PDP’s strongholds as the only party with much more national outlook.
Buhari’s massive support base then would alleged rigging, malpractices, irregularities, and thus threatened fire and brimstones because they ignorantly failed to understand the political dynamics of the country, that a region cannot and will not independently produce a president without the support of others.
Right from when Obi dumped the PDP for his newly found fortress of LP, perhaps because of his unmet political aspiration of playing a second fiddle to Atiku as a vice presidential candidate, just as he did in 2019, the political “elders” and not all these puerile political neophytes and first time voters already premonitory know without gazing the crystal ball that his decision to contest on a structureless LP without national outlook at the expense of national parties like the ruling APC and main opposition PDP was just a political trial; a trial that would end in a denial of course.
Elders, according to a Yoruba after all say thus: *Ti omoge bangegi ninu igbo, agba mobitomasubusi*. This literarily translates to mean that when a child is cutting a tree in the forest, elder out their shrewdness and wisdom already know the destination that the tree will fall.
Perhaps this informed the prediction of Ebonyi state governor David Umahi and his Anambra counterpart, Prof. Charles Soludo, who are also of the igbo extraction.
While Umahi was speaking to Ezza Clan on the need to vote for his governorship candidate in APC before the gubernatorial election, he said that Peter Obi knew he would not win the presidency and could not win the presidency without an alliance with other regions of the country.
In corroborating the Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State’s prediction that the Labour Party candidate would not win the presidential poll, Umahi said his prediction had come to pass and that had vindicated him.
“One needs to dig with two-arrowed woods so that when one fails to stick on the target, the other wood will stick to it,” he insisted, adding “Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State harped on this fact and was crucified for it; but his words have come to pass.
“The wise thing for the Igbos to do is to tell themselves the truth that we alone cannot make ourselves President.
“We have to work with other tribes as the South-West did with the North and have succeeded.
“We have to stop being parochial and clannish; who could have believed that Obi was talking with me up till the last minute?” he added.
But how delusionary can these political jejune wannabes can be to think that a Peter Obi that won only two states out of the possible nineteen northern states can win the presidential election, just because he won his South Eastern region, while also forgetting the humongous numerical strength and advantages that the north wields?
Elections have come and gone with the emergence of winners.
Hence, fences and bridges are expected to be mended, while also expectedly,the aggrieved would have their days in the court rooms. Then, why are Obidients still rumbling with their mob and herd mentality of assaulting and bullying people whose opinions they adjudged to be dissenting to their messianic candidate and Elupee?
When the sound of a drum becomes too worryingly and disturbingly loud, then the drum is on the cusp of ripping and tearing into shreds and pieces.
The sound of the Obidients’ drums has now over taken the melodic song of Obi’s presidential ambition, and it’s expected that he (Obi) prevails on his warlike and belligerent supporters for therapeutic orientation, so as not to allow this drum they are beating for him tear off, in order to have one to dance to its sound in future.
On a lighter note, how “Obidiently Yusful” are these Obidients who recently descended on one of the world’s iconic and venerated figures like Professor Wole Soyinka, with haulages of insults and curses just because he bore his statesmanship mind on a national issue as important as anarchy?
Obidients need help, they need therapeutic orientation. Someone should please help Obidients.
Ozumi Abdul is a journalist and staff writer at PRNIGERIA. He can be reached via [email protected]
