Onyekachi Eze 
The Labour Party (LP) on Thursday said it disagrees with Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka on his analysis of the February 25 presidential election, noting that he allowed emotion to take better part of him.
Soyinka was reported to have said that the Labour Party did not win the election and accused party supporters of fomenting trouble.
But LP in a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary Obiora Ifoh, reminded Soyinka that the matter is still before the court, and would reserve its comments until the Supreme Court makes a final pronouncement.
The party said it understands that the literary giant is human and therefore “susceptible to emotions…” but expressed surprise that Soyinka who is regarded as a detribalised Nigeria and an activist, would succumb to what it described as “groupthink syndrome that subscribes to state capture…based on primordial considerations.”
It noted that the Nobel Laureate admitted that he has an electoral monitoring unit, but wondered why he failed to notice that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) failed to comply with its own rule.
“We really appreciate him for at least giving some credit to the Labour Party and its presidential candidate for breaking the monopoly of power hitherto held by the two other parties.
“We also noted his admission of his willingness to be part of a demonstration which would be based on the banner of truth,” the statement added.
The LP stated it was aware that Soyinka resides in Lagos State and was in Nigeria on February 25 when elections were held in Nigeria, adding that he would have probably watched “when a certain individual in Lagos warned non-indigenes to vote a particular political party or risk being deported to their place of birth, and he never condemned it.
“He was there when ballot boxes were snatched by thugs in a polling booth right in front of his house, he didn’t condemn it.
“We are still looking for where he came out to condemn the unprovoked attacks on our supporters in Lagos by members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) during the last elections.”
The party said there was a global condemnation of, not only the outcome of the election but also the process, “particularly, the ‘glitching’ incidence that occurred only during the transmission of presidential results to IREV.
“As someone who is known to demonstrate based on truth, we didn’t hear as much as a whisper from ‘Kongi’ reminding INEC that it has to stand by its word.
“He also watched when the Labour Party provided evidence of several defaced result sheets permitted and uploaded to the IREV by INEC, particularly in places where the Labour Party won, again the great Soyinka was astonishingly mute.
“We will not allege selective amnesia as the reason for Soyinka’s wrong prognosis but we would have expected him to be a statesman, which we thought he was, by remaining on the side of caution and not exhibiting the dual character of someone who may be blinded by some chauvinistic tendencies.
“We would rather keep our impression about his recent dual personality with us. We want to also let him know that building a new Nigeria is a dream whose time has come and Nigerian youths will not relent until such dream is realised.”
