Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, has denied claims that he paid tribute to the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ahmed Bola Tinubu following his emergence as a candidate for next year’s elections.
This denial was contained in a statement titled, ‘I did not pay tribute to Tinubu- Soyinka’, issued by his spokesman, Abiola Owoaje, on Friday.
Africa Daily News, New York recalls that a tribute titled, ‘Prof Wole Soyinka’s tribute to Sen Asiwaju Tinubu’, purportedly written by Soyinka eulogising Tinubu on his political accomplishments, had gone viral on various WhatsApp platforms shortly after he emerged as the presidential flagbearer of the APC.
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The elder statesman had, earlier in the year, also dismissed a social media post endorsing Tinubu for the 2023 Presidency.
Soyinka described the trending post as the handiwork of indolent identity thieves whose preoccupation is to deceive the general public with phoney social media posts to gain prominence.
He maintained that he did not operate or own social media accounts.
The statement further said, ‘The literary luminary reiterated his position on the 2023 elections and the issues surrounding it, noting that he has no business meddling in the struggle for power by political parties in the country.
‘Soyinka enjoins the general public to be on alert to the antics of faceless cowards spreading falsehood, adding that they should not partake in the despicable action of the authors by spreading the cocktail of lies.’
In a related development, the Vice President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo has revealed that he only lost the battle, but not the war, following his defeat in the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary to former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
