The post which is being circulated on WhatsApp claims Soyinka acknowledged that he is a fan of the three presidential candidates namely Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka on Sunday debunked a viral post attributed to him making comments on certain aspects of the 2023 general elections.
The post which is being circulated on WhatsApp claims Soyinka acknowledged that he is a fan of the three presidential candidates namely Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Soyinka described such fake viral posts as a product of twisted minds seeking relevance for their cowardice.
According to him, people should be bold enough to put the stamp of originality with their names on comments they make instead of stealing his identity to confer authenticity to figments of their unscrupulous minds.
“Again let it be known to one and all that I did not authorise the viral post being circulated on the social media. Nigerians should please disregard the post attributed to me as I never made such comments,” the literary icon said.
In January, Soyinka also debunked a quote on Northern hegemony attributed to him by Prof Bola Akinterinwa.
Soyinka, in a statement personally signed by him, described Akinterinwa as a victim “of Nigeria’s fake attribution industry which has now attained hideous social dimensions”.
He warned that the “increasingly bastardised social media will eventually set one country after the other on fire, leading eventually to a global conflagration”.
“I never made such a statement. We have warned again and again. The increasingly bastardised social media will eventually set one country after the other on fire, leading eventually to a global conflagration. And the principal instigators will be those malformed subhumans who lack the courage of their conviction and must resort to Identity Theft of mounting impudence,” he said.
Also in February, Soyinka debunked quotes attributed to him castigating former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 presidential election.
He also denied defending the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 election, Bola Tinubu.
Soyinka, who distanced himself from the quotes in a statement by his spokesman, Abiola Owoaje, said the person behind the fabrication of the quotes was a peddler of fake news who was ashamed to use his own name.