PETER OBI RESPONDS TO WOLE SOYINKA'S 'FASCIST' REMARK

Peter Obi and Wole Soyinka

"I was very sad..."

Mr Peter Obi, the Labour Party's presidential candidate in the February 25 presidential election, has responded to Prof Wole Soyinka's charge that his fans, known as "Obidients," are "fascists."

Obi expressed regret about the conversation, stating that he regards Soyinka as a father figure.

He offered the statement while answering questions on Arise Television's Prime Time program on Monday.

He claimed that the individuals who are always referred to as 'obedient' are not solely those who support him, and that the opposition had also played a role.

Obi, on the other hand, contended that young people have been deprived by a system that is supposed to care for them.

In an interview with Channels Television, Soyinka accused Obidients of fascism.

The former Anambra State governor claimed that his supporters had been pushed to the brink of despair, claiming that society has nothing to give them.

He said, "Prof is a well respected, revered personality in Nigeria and globally. And I have always respected him and he is a dear father to me. For me I was very very sad that there was such an exchange.

"Some of the 'Obidients', I must tell you, or people they mentioned that they are 'Obidient' are not entirely people who are with us.

"The opposition have also come into it. We don't worry about that. But I was very sad there was such an exchange.

"I respect a father, but you have to understand this, these young people are people who have been so deprived by supposedly a system that is supposed to care for them.

"They have been pushed to the wall. Even me, the way they even react when I say things, I could feel their pain. I could feel it because I live in the same system that they are living in.

"When we were young, things were working. All of a sudden, it became a worse situation."

"My own comment on that is that Prof remains a revered father, and I have kept respecting him for that.

"And of course the young 'Obidients' I feel for them, I wish you can feel what they are feeling, the pain.

"There is nothing the society is offering them, even when they try to do it on their own. This is a place you move around with a laptop, you will be arrested and labelled all sorts of names.

"This is a place where people are thrown into jail for even making comment, when people who have stolen billions of the country's money, done worst things are moving around and celebrated."