Soyinka: I admire Amaechi for not stepping down for Tinubu during APC primary

Wole Soyinka, the Nobel laureate, says Rotimi Amaechi demonstrated courage by refusing to step down for President Bola Tinubu during the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary contest of 2022.

Soyinka spoke in Abuja on Saturday at the 60th birthday celebration of Amaechi, who served as governor of Rivers state from 2007 to 2015.

The playwright said he was particularly moved by Amaechi’s defiance at the primary election, which he followed live from Abu Dhabi.

“The main reason why I had to be here today — it’s first of all that I admire Rotimi Amaechi’s fighting spirit,” he said.

“And it’s a very consistent one, but the most memorable for me — because I watched this event live on TV all the way from Abu Dhabi.

“I wanted to see the drama of all the primaries going on during the election. I wasn’t really here but I said I want to watch this contest and I’m glad I did.

“Because it gave me a great — most malicious pleasure, rascally if you like, pleasure — to see the incumbent president being given a dose of his own medicine.”

Soyinka said Amaechi’s decision to stay in the race reminded him of Tinubu’s own defiance during the Olusegun Obasanjo era.

“Let me explain this. For somebody we knew as the last man standing when he fought to a standstill, a former president who was manoeuvring himself into a position of changing the constitution and obtaining a third term,” he said.

“He keeps denying it but he and I know for a fact and so do others. And towards that goal, he was sort of emasculating the powers of the constituent elements of the federation.

“And by the end, this president was the last man standing, resisted that effort. All the others had sort of cowed down because their statutory allocation had been stopped — contrary to the constitution.

“But one man — he was the last man standing. Well, he obtained a dose of his own medicine from Rotimi Amaechi during the primaries. I enjoyed that very much.

“While everybody was, you know, falling over one another conceding, there was one individual who got on the podium and he said no, I’m not conceding.

“I didn’t come all the way here to commit ‘lúlẹ̀’. And that man was Rotimi Amaechi. And I said this is what democracy is all about.”

Tinubu polled 1,271 votes to defeat 13 other presidential hopefuls in the primary election.

Amaechi, former minister of transportation, polled 316 votes to come second, with then Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo receiving 235 votes.