Prof. Wole Soyinka has condemned the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) sanctions imposed on Channels Television for a March 22 interview with Labour Party vice-presidential candidate Datti Baba-Ahmed.
In spite of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declaring Bola Tinubu the President-elect, the LP running mate held that the All Progressives Congress (APC) had failed to satisfy the requirements of Section 134 (2)(a) and (b) of the constitution for election to the office of the President.
Following the interview with Datti-Ahmed on the programme, Politics Today, the NBC imposed a N5m fine on Channels Television.
However, in a statement on Friday, Soyinka argued that to sustain the penalty is to give joy to others he did not name who turn the Internet into a septic tank for depositing their waste, yet feel that others should be silenced.
The Nobel laureate made the assertion while stating his position on what he described as fascism and a climate of fear being generated by political actors whom he said have refused to entertain corrective criticism.
“May I cease this opportunity, by the way, to condemn the sanctions imposed on CHANNELS Television which anchored the performance of the LP candidate.
“As stated, I watched the programme keenly – saw the valiant efforts of the interviewer to ensure fair hearing. I fail to understand just where the station could be faulted, except from a disposition for injustice.”
He also volunteered to engage in a one-on-one debate with Datti, or any nominee of his, on the same platform for argument on the issue “without the malodorous intervention of media trolls, and with the same interviewer as mediator.”
