Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka said he tried to discourage veteran politicians Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu from contesting the Nigerian presidency to allow for the emergence of a younger candidate.

Former vice president Atiku Abubakar and former Lagos governor Bola Tinubu, now president-elect, flew their parties’ flag in the February 25 presidential election.

Mr Abubakar, who finished as runner up in the election, has been running for the Nigerian top job since 1992. Mr Tinubu, who governed Nigeria’s economic nerve centre from 1999 to 2007, described his presidential bid as a “lifelong ambition.”

But Mr Soyinka said the two old political warhorses should have quit the stage for “fresh blood.”

“I happen to be the person who told one of the candidates, former vice president Atiku, when he was contesting and came to see me in my office in Ikeja years ago. He came with Gbenga Daniel the former governor of Ogun state. I said to him listen, it’s about time you people left the stage. Why don’t you just go away? We need an infusion of fresh blood into the system,” Mr Soyinka revealed in an interview with Arise TV aired on Wednesday morning.

“To some people maybe they read it as bloodletting. No, I said an infusion of fresh blood. So I cannot support you, I think your generation should really quit.”

Mr Soyinka then added, “He wasn’t the only one. I then sort out the current president-elect Tinubu and I gave him exactly the same message. I said whatever you people are planning, I am convinced that we need a young generation. New thinking, new sensibilities, new energies.

“So why don’t you just leave the stage? Let’s look for somebody, a really brilliant individual and then use your influence to catapult that person to power and this country will see a massive transformation. 

“We spoke for about an hour and a half and in the end, Bola Tinubu said no. He felt there were still things which he felt he can contribute”. 

The Nobel laureate also condemned the language and mannerisms espoused by the vice presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Senator Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, in a recent interview.

He stated the totality of the statement made by Mr Datti Baba-Ahmed was unbecoming and such behaviour could jeopardise public discussion. 

“Nearly the totality of Labour Party’s Datti Baba Ahmed’s statement was unbecoming. Dictating to the supreme court. It is a fascistic language that alienates the people. It is unacceptable and I refuse to be a part of it,”

Mr Soyinka touched on the importance and nature of civil action in a democracy.

“Civil action is always justifiable in any situation of discontent. But then we also must be very guarded in our statement and the nature of civil action.”

Mr Soyinka condemned ethnic baiting and the suppression of votes of those considered to be strangers in Lagos state. He stated that there was real targeting in certain sections of Lagos where the Igbo community was prominent. 

He stated that such action was disgraceful and deserved to be condemned by every serious thinking person.