SOYINKA ELECTED DFPF NATIONAL CHAIR

Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, on Saturday in Lagos emerged the national chairman of the newly registered political party, the Democratic Front for a Peoples Federation (DFPF).

He was elected unopposed at the party's convention held at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja In his post-election address, Soyinka said that the DFDF came on board to sanitize and transform Nigeria's nationhood into a democratic sanctuary for all her citizens.

The Nobel laureate disclosed that the party might not be immediately interested in fighting for political power in the impending election.

He however hinted that the party would be ready to work with parties whose written or unwritten manifestoes are in the spirit DFPF.

'The DFPF for now is disinterested in the overall national scene. But after taking control in one state, one Council, one ward, would begin to reach out through example to others, gradually evolving a civic rule that governs and performs through mutual collaboration'' he said.

Soyinka said that this political model of the DFPF was practiced in many parts of the world and urged INEC to allow the party to limit itself to activities within one state.

He expressed concern that the nation has been 'sucked dry while a minority is so lubricated that they slip out of grasp when their hands are caught in the till''. “Let this party resolve to overturn the iniquitous arrangement by which the national cake is swallowed entirely by those whose appointed task is to serve the sovereign electorate'', Soyinka said.

He said that there was a need to change the nation from the daily routine of brutish existence where the once unthinkable and unacceptable have become the norm. “These and other anomalies will occupy the minds of this new party and their associates until the full transformation and re-humanization of the nation'' Soyinka added.

He disclosed that the late Beko Ransome-Kuti and late Chima Ubani were founding members of the party, which was denied registration when it was first founded in 2002.

In a goodwill message, the Convener of the Save Nigeria Group, Pastor Tunde Bakare, said that he was at the convention to identify with Soyinka. Among those present at the convention were Niger Delta female activist, Annkio Briggs, and president of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Yerima Shettima, who were elected woman leader and vice chairman (North East) respectively .

Also at the event were Mr Tony Urantta of the United Niger Delta Energy Development Security Strategy, Afenifere Renewal Group spokesman, Mr Yinka Odumakin and Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin of the Campaign for Democracy, among others.