File photo: Wole Soyinka| PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images)
The Noble Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has said that he had long told Atiku Abubakar and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to quit politics and leave the stage for the young ones to steer the wheel of the country.
Professor Soyinka, who featured in an Arise TV programme today, April 5, said that at different times, he asked the duo not to run for presidency again.
“I told Atiku when he was contesting and came to see me in my Ikeja office few years ago; he came with Gbenga Daniel, my 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’.
“But for some people, maybe they read it as bloodletting. No, I said infusion of fresh blood. I said so I cannot support you. I think your generation should quit.
“But he wasn’t the only one. I then sought out the current President-elect, Tinubu and I gave him exactly the same message.
“I said, ‘Whatever you people are planning, I’m convinced that we need the 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 then use your entire 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 then Bola Tinubu said, ‘No’. He said there were still things he felt he could still contribute.”
