Nigerian writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has founded a political party, just months ahead of the West African nation’s presidential election.
Soyinka was elected unopposed to chair the new party, which has been named the Democratic Front for the People’s Federation (DFPF), in Lagos on Sunday, UPI reported.
In his post-election address, Soyinka said that the DFPF aims to sanitize Nigeria and transform it into a democratic sanctuary for all its people.
“The DFPF for now is disinterested in the overall national scene. But after taking control in one state, one council, one ward, it would begin to reach out through example to others, gradually evolving a civic rule that governs and performs through mutual collaboration,” he explained.
Soyinka stated that the political model laid out by the DFPF was practiced in many parts of the world and urged the party to limit itself to activities within one state.
There is a need to change the daily routine of brutish existence in a nation where the once unthinkable and unacceptable has now become the norm, he added.
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The new party says it aims to tackle corruption, improve health, and make advances in education.
In 1986, Soyinka became the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, paving the way for other African winners.
Many of Soyinka’s books and plays have won him worldwide acclaim, although he is also a well known political activist.
In his book The Man Died, which he wrote in 1972, he dealt with his own imprisonment during Nigeria’s 1967-1970 civil war.
State, presidential, and legislative elections are scheduled to take place next year, but it is not clear if Soyinka himself will run as a candidate in any of the upcoming elections. – pressTV
