According to the Obi-Datti Media Office, Datti Baba-Ahmed, the vice presidential candidate for the Labour Party in the upcoming presidential election on February 25th, won’t engage in a discussion with Prof. Wole Soyinka due to cultural and political considerations.

After labeling Baba-Ahmed’s comment on the February 25 presidential election as “fascist language,” Soyinka demanded a debate with Baba-Ahmed on live television in a statement titled “Fascism on Course (I)” on Friday.

The playwright then stressed that supporters of Obi should allow judges to do their job.

Rejecting the challenge, the Obi-Datti Media Office in a statement on Saturday stated that Baba-Ahmed would rather debate with the candidates who snubbed debates during campaign period.

The statement, titled, ‘Datti Baba-Ahmed will not debate with Prof Soyinka’, partly read, “Like many Nigerians, we are bewildered by the late hour intervention of our respected Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, in issues around the flawed 2023 elections. Where was he all this while?

“One of those who should ordinarily and rightfully be honoured as the conscience of the nation, Prof Soyinka, is now criminalising dissent and in fact weighing in on the side of fraud and injustice!

“We state, therefore, that the vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Dr Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, cannot take up Prof Soyinka’s offer of a public debate, not out of cowardice, but for cultural and political reasons. “Culturally, it’s not decent, their age and accomplishment gaps taken into account, for Datti to sit opposite the 88-year-old global icon and point out his folly to his face, even if the old man called for it. And politically, there is no basis for such a challenge in that Professor Soyinka is not on any of the opposite ballots.”