Prof. Wole Soyinka, a Nobel laureate, criticized Datti Baba-Ahmed, the Labour Party’s vice presidential candidate, for his inciting remarks while appearing on a Channels television current affairs show, Politics Today.

The distinguished professor noted that the words of the Labour Party’s Vice Presidential candidate were a gladiatorial challenge directed at the judiciary, and by implication, the rest of the democratic polity.

Soyinka also denounced the aggressive manners of the Labour Party supporters saying he, on several occasions, warned Peter Obi, the party’s flag bearer at the February 25 poll, of the implications of such on his electoral success.

“My rejection of fascism is nothing new. On three occasions, I was able to send a message to Peter Obi that if he lost the election, it would be his followers who lost it for him. It was depressing to watch his lieutenant, a crucially positioned voice of a movement that has “broken the mould”, threaten the totality of social existence. Whatever our ideological leaning, is Donald Trump the ideal template for a burgeoning democracy in the nation?”

It will be recalled that Baba-Ahmed spoke on the March 22 edition of Politics Today on Channels Television calling on President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chief Justice not to swear in Bola Tinubu, whom INEC declared as Nigeria’s president-elect.

He posited that it was unconstitutional to declare Tinubu the winner and give him a certificate of return.

The National Broadcasting Code (NBC), in response to the statements, fined Channels Television N5 million for allegedly breaking the NBC code during a program starring Baba-Ahmed.

The Federal government, as Integrity News reported, faulted the opposition Labour Party candidates for instigating violence against the government after they lost the election.

Lai Mohammed, who is the information minister of the outgoing Muhammadu Buhari-led government, accused Peter Obi of treason while hosting journalists in Washington DC in the United States.

According to Lai Mohammed, “Obi and his Vice, Datti-Ahmed cannot be threatening Nigerians that if the President-elect, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is sworn in on May 29, it will be the end of democracy in Nigeria.

“This is treason. You cannot be inviting insurrection, and this is what they are doing.

“Obi’s statement is that of a desperate person, he is not a democrat that he claimed to be.