NOBEL laurete, Prof Wole Soyinka, has offered to debate the vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Datti Baba-Ahmed, on Channels Television.
Soyinka made this known in a statement titled ‘Fascism on Course (1)’.
Recall that Baba-Ahmed spoke on March 22 edition of Politics Today on Channels Television calling on President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chief Justice not to swear in President-elect, Bola Tinubu.
He insisted that declaring Tinubu a winner and issuing him a certificate of return was against the constitution.
Reacting to the utterances, the National Broadcasting Code (NBC) fined Channels Television N5 million for allegedly violating the NBC code in a programme with Baba-Ahmed.
While condemning the sanction on the broadcast company, Soyinka said he is willing to engage Datti or any of his supporters in a debate.
His words: “May I seize 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.
“To sustain that penalty is to give joy to others who turn Internet into a soakaway for their rancid emissions, yet feel that others should be silenced. If CHANNELS feels up to it, I offer myself willing to engage Mr. Datti – or any nominee of his – on its platform on this very bone of contention – one-on-one – without the malodorous intervention of media trolls, and with the same interviewer as mediator. That should be taken as a serious offer.”
