NOBEL Laureate Wole Soyinka says he will not be voting for the duo of President Muhammadu Buhari or Abubakar Atiku in the upcoming election as he finds the two candidates “worthy of absolute rejection”.
Soyinka said this during an interactive session termed Citizen Forum 2019, stressing that it is time for an overhaul of the status quo in the Nigerian political sphere.
“It is time for a totally new direction, and when an alternative emerges, we will give the candidate our backing,” he said.
“For the avoidance of doubt, let me make my position quite clear because I don’t want any ambiguity; I, Wole Soyinka, will not be voting for either the two so-called contesting parties. I find both of them worthy of absolute rejection.”
Soyinka stressed that his position was for a new direction and that he was not interested in a comparative assessment of the candidates.
He said he was not the only concerned citizen with like views as there are ongoing coalition meetings among some of the young presidential candidates in Abuja and Lagos that would produce a consensus candidate at the end of the negotiations.
“As I’m speaking, there is a coalition having its meeting in Lagos from which they hope to produce a consensus candidate. There is another group meeting in Abuja, also at the end would send us their consensus candidate,” he said.
“Things have been going on quietly in the background to try and change the direction of this nation in a very positive way and to make the public understand that they do not have to be enslaved permanently to the old discredited order. It is my sole business in this election.”
Soyinka also advised the citizens to not just cast votes, but to vote in a creative format that would yield the desired result.
“I don’t believe in what is called negative vote which means, for me, throwing your vote in a wastebasket, I believe instead in a creative vote, not a protest vote, not a negative vote but a creative vote.
“And a creative vote means that the will to at least sow a seed through your vote that will germinate eventually. The pace of germination is beyond the control of everyone, but it is never too early to make a beginning.
“It has happened before in other societies, when a dark horse emerges from nowhere and trumps all the political juggernauts caterpillar and so on with their performers, worthless, their capacity for violence and treachery,” Soyinka said.
“When a dark horse emerges from nowhere and trumps all the political juggernauts caterpillars and so on with their performers, worthless, their capacity for violence and treachery,” Soyinka said.