Prof Wole Soyinka

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka announced the launch of a new political party, the Democratic Front for People’s Federation (DFPF). The party, he said at a lecture celebrating his 76th birthday, will represent an “organ of collaboration for progressive forces” to unseat the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Urging Nigerians to join the new party, he asked those who felt they were in the wrong political party to join the DFPF.

“The party is strictly for those who have nowhere to lay their heads, those who have discovered that they are in the wrong political party, progressives in political parties including those in the People’s Democratic Party who have the zest for positive service”

Prof. Soyinka said the new party would provide a viable political platform for its members adding that, despite opposition, the DFPF had come to stay after it has been set up by a group of people working together for the last few years. He intimated his audience that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), under its former Chairman, Professor Maurice Iwu, had frustrated his earlier efforts to get the new party registered during the last elections – “Iwu, probably acting on the instructions of his employers, frustrated and denied the party recognition over the years, but today it is a reality,” Soyinka stated. The DFPF is set to hold its first convention in September, 2010.

People’s Democratic Party, PDP has ruled the country since May 1999, following the country’s return to a civilian rule.