My Message To Obi About Obidients – Soyinka

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has said that media houses have distorted the message in his recent interview with Channels Television.

The renowned writer stated that his message was misrepresented, thereby rendering his remarks completely unrecognisable.

Soyinka had an interview a week ago on Monday with several media houses feasting on it, however, he said in a statement on Tuesday where he clarified his position in the interview.

In the statement titled, “Media responsibility,’’ Soyinka said he has always made his rejection of fascism clear over and over again. He noted that he was able to send a message to the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, thrice that, if he lost the election, it would be his followers who lost it for him.

He stated, “What I have read – at least, thus far – this morning, extracted from a one-and-a-half long interview, conducted a week ago with Channels Television, brings once more to the fore, the critical responsibility of the media in transmitting the spoken, even recorded – word to the public. This is especially crucial in a time of civic uncertainty. When remarks are taken out of context, spliced into a new one, provided a sensational headline, distortions become stamped on public receptivity, and the central intent of one’s remarks becomes completely unrecognisable.”

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“I denounced the menacing utterances of a vice-presidential aspirant as unbecoming. It was a gladiatorial challenge directed at the judiciary and, by implication, the rest of the democratic polity. But what on earth has happened to my even more urgent condemnation of the physical violence inflicted on those designated “strangers” in Lagos in the lead up to, and during governorship elections? This prejudicial selectivity is a betrayal of trust, and I find it contemptuous of public deserving. My critique of incipient fascism in the movement remains grounded in indisputable evidence.”

Soyinka stated that throughout the interview, he continued to stress that the final word had yet to be pronounced on the elections – “that omission renders the full message tendentious!”