“I did not tell Nigerians to vote Buhari in 2015”-Soyinka

Nobel laureate winner Professor Wole Soyinka has told Nigerians that he did not tell them to vote Buhari in 2015. Soyinka who spoke on Thursday, April 7, 2022, during a media briefing in Lagos stated this.

Soyinka said he recalled that he urged Nigerians to vote out Jonathan, but denied endorsing Buhari, who was the main opposition candidate in the 2015 presidential election.

He said he didn’t vote for Buhari and didn’t ask anyone to vote for the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate.

Soyinka said: “Jonathan had a chance to win that election and I told him this. He blew it. He really blew it on many levels.

“Before the election, I told him frankly. I told him why I was not going to vote for him or support him because he lost the confidence and trust of the people — a couple of actions and inactions, including his failure to tackle corruption. Despite that, it is false to say that I supported the election of Buhari.

“If I believed that is what I should do, I would not hesitate one moment to come out and say this is the candidate. I challenge anyone to say where did I say vote for Buhari — when, what occasion and in what language?

“What I said very distinctly is ‘do not vote for Jonathan’. I don’t regret that because the level of corruption at that stage was such at number one.

“It is a shame that one has to recall negativities. At no time did I ever say ‘vote for Buhari’. You can’t find it anywhere. I did not vote for Buhari. If you do not believe me, go and ask the security man in Abeokuta who used to accompany me if I left my house that day.”

Sometime in May 2021, Soyinka criticised President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration saying he doesn’t believe his government is capable of uniting Nigeria due to its systemic failure.

He said Nigeria had lost a key opportunity to unite, adding that he didn’t believe that President Buhari’s administration could bring the country together.