Prof. Wole Soyinka has said he will not be voting President Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar in next month’s presidential election.
Atiku of the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] is considered the toughest opponent that Buhari, who is seeking a second term under the All Progressives Congress [APC], will face in the February polls.
However, Soyinka has outrightly rejected the two major presidential candidates, insisting it is time for the nation to move into a new direction different from that of the PDP or APC.
The Nobel laureate spoke at an event organised by Citizen Forum and held at the Freedom Park on Lagos Island, Lagos on Thursday.
He says that a coalition is about to be born to produce a consensus candidate to challenge the APC and PDP.
Soyinka says he does not believe in negative votes or protest votes but creative voting that will produce results.
He adds that it has happened in other climes.
“It is time for a totally new direction, and when an alternative emerges, we will give the candidate our backing,” he said.
“For the avoidance of doubt, let me make my position quite clear because I don’t want any ambiguity; I Wole Soyinka will not be voting for either the two so-called contesting parties. I find both of them worthy of absolute rejection.
“For a number of reasons which I will not go into here, I’m not interested in a comparative assessment. My position is simply that it is time for a totally new direction. And obviously, I’m not the only one, as I’m speaking, there is a coalition having its meeting in Lagos from which they hope to produce a consensus candidate.
“There is another group meeting in Abuja, also at the end would send us their consensus candidate. Things have been going on quietly in the background to try and change the direction of this nation in a very positive way and to make the public understand that they do not have to be enslaved permanently to the old discredited order. It is my sole business in this election.
“I don’t believe in what is called negative vote which means, for me, throwing your vote in a wastebasket, I believe instead in a creative vote, not a protest vote, not a negative vote but a creative vote. And a creative vote means that the will to at least sow a seed through your vote that will germinate eventually. The pace of germination is beyond the control of everyone, but it is never too early to make a beginning. It has happened before in other societies. When a dark horse emerges from nowhere and trumps all the political juggernauts caterpillars and so on with their performers, worthless, their capacity for violence and treachery.”
