obel laureate, Wole Soyinka, has distanced himself from media reports linking him to candidates running for president in the 2023 general election.

Mr Soyinka, said in a statement on Wednesday, described the reports as “fake news.”

“Here we go again, the same boring, illiterate public interlopers who lack the courage of their conviction and must steal the identities of their betters,” Mr Soyinka, a professor of literature, said in the statement he titled ‘Season of Fakery Galore.’

“One can only hope that the public has learnt to identify fake news and join in the urgent task of exposing and disgracing these despicable touts.”

A report shared on Facebook in November last year quoted Mr Soyinka as saying he would “campaign for his longtime friend and in 1993 Nadeco struggle.”

The post had a photo of Mr Soyinka placed beside that of the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu.

On Monday, Mr Tinubu officially declared his intention to run for president in 2023.

“For the avoidance of doubt, I have not even thought 2023, much less inserted candidates into coveted positions,” Mr Soyinka continued.

“The signature of this latest slowpoke is familiar — he or she does not even know the difference between ‘Laureate and Laurel.’ This is an ancient forgery being recycled for the umpteenth time. Those who pass it round do themselves and their recipients a disservice. Find something worthwhile to occupy your time.

“In any case, we have no business with politics in the land of the dead, and the most recent information I have on me is that I died sometime last year. The email account of the year’s Nobel ‘Laurel’ was hacked by these same agents to publicise my demise, so who is this still politicking WS ‘Laurel?'”