The Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has given a clear direction on what he feels should happen in Nigeria, as the country prepares to elect a new leader in the presidential election, saying it is time for a total new direction instead of following the old order, the reason he said he won’t vote for either President Muhamadu Buhari or Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Soyinka, deciding on which direction not to go in the coming polls, sounded unambiguous in making his decision known on why he decided not to vote for either the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) the incumbent President Buhari, or the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Soyinka speaking on Thursday, during an interactive session tagged, “Citizen Forum 2019,” held at the Freedom Park, Lagos, succinctly stated, “It is time for a totally new direction, and when an alternative emerges, we will give the candidate our backing,” “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.”
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Soyinka, who said his decision was premised on a number of reasons, one of which he said was based on the need for a total new direction, however, said he would not want to speak further on them yet, since he was not interested in comparative assessment.
“For a number of reasons which I will not go into here, I’m not interested in a comparative assessment. My position is simply that it is time for a totally new direction. And obviously, I’m not the only one, 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. 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.”
“I don’t believe in what is called negative vote which means, for me, throwing your vote in a waste basket, 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 caterpillars and so on with their performers, worthless, their capacity for violence and treachery.”
and then