INEC, Prof Yakubu Real Fascist Not Datti– Chimamanda Responds To Prof Soyinka

Nigeria’s award-winning writer, Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie has disagreed with Prof Wole Soyinka’s on the aftermath of the 2023 presidential election which was held in February.

Adichie said Prof Soyinka’s comment referring to Labour Party’s Vice Presidential candidate Datti-Baba Ahmed’s interview on Arise Tv as fascist was wrong.

The Nigerian-born novelist said on Arise TV on Tuesday that the confusion over the recent election is due to the Independent National Electoral Commission-s ‘delibrate’ non-transmission of results in real-time as stated in its guidelines.

According to her President Muhammadu Buhari and INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu had the chance to become the hero of Nigeria and Africa if only they delivered a transparent presidential poll.

Adichie had written an open letter to Joe Biden, the President of the US, requesting him not to endorse the president-elect who is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu

The letter titled ‘Nigeria’s Hollow Democracy’ was largely criticised by the APC.

It had led newspaper headlines and social media discussions until Prof Soyinka’s ‘fascist’ comment.

Datti had granted an interview on Arise and Channels Tv where he said swearing-in Tinubu will amount to the death of democracy in Nigeria.

His comments was described by the opposition party and the Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed as amounting to treasonable felony.

Datti was accused of making comments that could lead to an insurrection.

However, responding to Datti, the Nobel Laureate accused him of blackmailing the judiciary when he suggested that the justice system in Nigeria is flawed.

Soyinka went on to say, ”His comments were unbecoming and a threat to the judiciary. It is a fascist language that alienates the people. It is unacceptable, and I refuse to be a part of it.”

However, while responding to questions, Adichie said she has a lot of respect for Prof Soyinka.

She said, “I admire him, I respect him as a thinker and a writer. I think everyone should read ‘The Man Died and Ake’ his memior is beautiful. But at the same time, I disagree very strongly with him about this particular issue.

“And actually because I respect Prof Soyinka, I went back to watch his interview. I had watched it when it aired because I thought I was missing something. And I think fascist is a really strong word. Fascist often makes me think of Muselini’s Italy.

“But I think we use it now to address a kind of authoritarianism and often populist, right-wing and like in Hungary and even the former American President.

“When you look at those situations, you can see why they have been termed fascist. And I did not see any reason that Mr Dati Baba Ahmed’s interview would have been termed fascist.

“I think he was making a very strongly felt point about the election but he was saying again which I thought seemed fairly reasonable is that if our democracy is rooted in our constitution, and you then swear in a person who is elected unconstitutionally, then you are in fact ending democracy. I think it’s quite a reasonable position.”

The novelist said a charitable way of reading Prof Soyinka’s comment is that “Prof Soyinka himself, I think is fair to say that he is not given to restraint in language in general and so, maybe that is where the word fascist came from.”

She opined that the real fascist is the INEC, its Chairman Prof Mahmood Yakubu and those who sponsored violence during the elections.

She said, ” However, I have suggestions for what we could use fascist for. We could use fascist for INEC, because as it is right now, many Nigerians feel deeply cheated by INEC; deeply disenfranchised by INEC and their authoritarianism which obviously is the basis of fascism at the centre of manipulating an election.

“Because what you are doing is you are gagging people. You are forcibly taking away their voice. That is fascism. Fascism is all of the violence that happened during the election. Fascist is the way that some people remain silent about that violence. Fascist is a government that has come out to address the very tangible and palpable discontent in this country.

“I think that Prof Yakubu had an opportunity for heroism and I think he wasted it spectacularly. Because he could have very easily become the hero of not just Nigeria but Africa. I also think that President Buhari missed an opportunity for heroism. Maybe his last chance at heriosm … I wish that he had taken a page from former president Yar Adua who was a very good and moral man.”