Soyinka recalls Obasanjo as President kneeling before Atiku in order to keep his job.

Wole Soyinka, a Nobel laureate, stated in August 2018 that former President Olusegun Obasanjo “knelt” before ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar in 2003.

According to Track News, Obasanjo begged Atiku to emerge as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flagbearer and run for re-election in the 2003 election.

Soyinka made the revelation in 2018 at the presentation of his book, ‘Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes? : Gani’s Unfinished Business,’ at Freedom Park in Lagos.

According to The Nation, the playwright warned Atiku that allowing Obasanjo to kneel before him would cost him dearly.

Soyinka was quoted as saying that his warning came true when Atiku’s dramatic turnaround began immediately after Obasanjo was sworn in for a second term.

“Before the PDP primaries in January 2003, Obasanjo got everyone he knew on the surface of the earth, including Yemi Ogunbiyi and my son, to get me to help him intercede when it was clear that (Abubakar) Atiku was in a position to take his job,” he explained. He knew Atiku regarded me highly and addressed me as ‘Uncle’.

“There was a lot of pressure. Of course, I couldn’t have knelt before Atiku and not planned to do something that would bring his boss down. But I can confirm that Obasanjo, as President, knelt before Atiku in order to keep his job.

“But I warned Atiku that for making Obasanjo to kneel down for you, be sure you would have to pay heavily for that. If you recall Atiku’s dramatic turnaround after Obasanjo was sworn in for a second term, I guess my warning came true.”

Meanwhile, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike made the same claim on Friday at the start of road construction in Port Harcourt.

Wike claimed that as vice-president, Atiku forced Obasanjo to kneel before him in order for him to be re-elected in 2003.

“You forget history,” Wike said. In 2002 and 2003, when President Olusegun Obasanjo wanted to run for a second term, a whole President knelt down before his deputy and said, ‘My vice, please allow me to run. You remember one of the conditions he (Atiku) imposed on him? Tony Anenih should be fired as minister of works and removed from the presidential campaign council. Obasanjo agreed.

“This one, we are not even giving such conditions; we are saying give us the national chairman and you say, ‘No, we will not listen to you people, don’t give us conditions’. This is something that goes to the heart of the country’s unity.”