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Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, the Labour Party Vice Presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, has fired some salvo the way of Nigeria's literary icon, Prof Wole Soyinka, over the latter's latest criticisms of Peter Obi.
This is coming on the heels of Soyinka's stinging remarks about Obi and his supporters' conduct in the aftermath of the controversial presidential election.
Soyinka has been in a running battle with Obidients, as Obi's supporters are fondly called, for insisting that the Labour Party didn't win the February 25, 2023 contest.
In a video interview that has gone viral online, the Nobel Laureate held nothing back as he called out the former Anambra State Governor for allegedly condoning and encouraging his supporters' aggressive behaviour online.
The literary icon also accused Obi of dishonesty and misrepresentation of their discussion following their meeting at the outset of the controversy.
Soyinka also said that, for the sake of the country, he hopes Obi won't contest for the presidency in 2027.
Datti defends Obi; fires back at Soyinka
However, reacting to the playwright's latest criticism of his principal, Datti said what Soyinka is doing is an attempted distraction.
Speaking in an interview on Arise Television on the night of Friday, May 24, 2024, the vice presidential candidate stressed that the Nobel Laureate's latest remarks showed that he's scared about the good things Obi will bring to Nigeria.
"The learned elder statesman Prof Wole Soyinka, he's scared in advance about what good Peter Obi will bring to Nigeria. He's scared in advance that the end is looking very likely for his principal, for bad governance. And what Soyinka is doing now is an attempted distraction which I beg you to excuse me from joining issues with Wole Soyinka, please.
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"You and I have much much better things to do. For all I know, he could continue to throw punches at my principal, at me, as small as I am. He could continue to do that. All I can do, I'd give him my heart, I will pray for him.
"You see, intellect doesn't give you the right to insult anybody. I remember this Soyinka insulting late General Abacha. Insulting him to the core. Nothing gives him the right to do that. Abahca wasn't an academic, he was a soldier for God's sake and a good one for that matter in his own, in his own right. I beg you, let's us put Soyinka in his likes aside, we have better things to talk about," Datti said.