Soyinka insists Obidients are fascists

Popular Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, insisted that the Obidient Movement, supporters of Peter Obi of the Labour Party, are fascists.

Soyinka condemned the Obidients over their role in the recently concluded 2023 general election.

Soyinka, spoke at the launch of his book, “The Putin Files: Excursions Around The Ideology Of Pain”, on Friday.

Responding to a lawyer and poet Ogaga Ifowodo’s question about why he called Obidients fascists, he used the 2020 EndSARS protest as an example of a struggle driven by pure truth.

According to him, EndSARS is one of the most successful movements in this country.

Soyinka noted that he supported the EndSARS protest and even addressed some protesters when leaving Lagos for Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

Comparing the EndSARS protest with the Obidient Movement, Soyinka said what the Obidients were trying to do was “the mobilization of youth to defend an untruth”.

Soyinka likened most actions of the Obidient Movement to former president Muhammadu Buhari, “pushing people to kill innocent serving members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) by claiming he was cheated out of an election”.

He said long before the election; some people had schemed to tilt the country towards having an interim government.

“So some of those who thought they were being radical, they were being ‘mumu’ (foolish) and “playing the script of others,” Soyinka said.

Obidients had criticized Soyinka in May after describing them as fascists.