THE Labour Party (LP) has said it’s 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.
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.
Reacting to the challenge in a statement released on Saturday, April 8, the LP said Datti would only engage Soyinka’s preferred candidates in a debate.
In the statement issued by the Obi-Datti Media Office, the LP said Datti’s refusal to take Soyinka up on his offer was not out of cowardice but for cultural and political reasons.
The LP noted that the Nobel Laureate was not on any of the opposing ballots in the election.
The party however said Datti would engage in the debate if Soyinka could use his influence to bring his preferred candidates for the exercise.
“We state that the Labour Party’s vice-presidential candidate, 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 older man called for it. And politically, there is no basis for such a challenge because Prof. is not on 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,” the LP said in the statement.
Datti had on Wednesday, March 22, called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chief Justice of Nigeria not to swear in Tinubu, whom INEC declared as the President-Elect, insisting that declaring Tinubu the winner and issuing him a certificate of return was against the Constitution.
The 53-year-old, who was a guest on Channels TV’s Politics Today, stressed that “whoever swears in Mr Tinubu” has “ended democracy” in Nigeria, a position that did not sit well with Soyinka and several other prominent Nigerians.
Reacting to Baba-Ahmed’s comments, Soyinka described the remarks as a “kind of do-or-die attitude and provocation” that goes contrary to democratic disposition.
Soyinka said the LP vice-presidential candidate tried to “dictate to the supreme arbiter of the nation”, adding that it was unacceptable.
Harrison Edeh is a journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, always determined to drive advocacy for good governance through holding public officials and businesses accountable.