The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, in the February 25 presidential election, Mr Peter Obi has reacted to Prof Wole Soyinka’s allegation that his supporters widely known as ‘Obidients’ are ‘fascists’.
Obi said he was very sad there was such an exchange, maintaining that he respects Soyinka as a father.
He gave the response on Monday while fielding questions on Arise Televison’s Prime Time programme.
He said that people always mentioned as ‘Obidient’ are not entirely people who are with him, insisting that the opposition had also come into it.
However, Obi maintained that young people have been deprived by supposedly a system that is meant to care for them.
Recall that Soyinka had in an interview with Channels Television accused Obidients of fascism.
The former Anambra State governor said his supporters have been pushed to the wall, maintaining that there is nothing the society is offering 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.”