Omoyele Sowore a media expert, public commentator, human rights activist, writer, and lecturer originate from Ese Odo, Ondo State, Nigeria. He was born without a silver spoon in the Niger Delta region into a polygamous home on the 16th of February 1971.
In 1988, he was admitted into the University of Lagos to study BSc in Geography and Planning, for political reasons and student activism he graduated in 1995 spending two extra years in university. During his studentship days in school, he served as the President of the Student Union Government, from 1992 to 1994.
As a result of injuries sustained from his activeness in anti-cultism and anti-corruption advocacy, Sowore traveled to New York for medical treatment in 1999. After his treatment, he stayed to pursue a master’s in public administration from Columbia University which he bagged in 2003.
Sowore was later employed as a lecturer of Modern African History at the City University of New York. In line with his passion to mentor lives positively, he left city University for post-Colonial African History at the School of Art, New York.
Sowore’s Activism
Omoyele Sowore’s struggle has become a model of leadership – for the freedom struggles he started during his days at the University of Lagos. His led protest and struggle were major instruments that bar the Nigerian government in 1989 from demoralizing the country’s educational sector. Then, the government intended to secure a $120 loan for an oil pipeline in the country from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with the organization ready to grant the demand of the government upon condition that the Universities in Nigeria should be reduced from twenty-eight to just five.
Because of his fervor for good governance, Sowore detested the bad governance of the military system in 1993, this made him lead a struggle of 5,100 students to call for a transition to a democratic system against the then led General Sani Abacha military administration. In a bid to combat the high tense of the students, policemen at that scene made things take a different turn for them as they opened fire, killing seven students. Sowore, the lead protester was arrested and beaten ferociously by the Policemen.
However, he wasn’t discouraged by all constraints and restraints posed to him, as he continued to advocate for good governance. In 2006, Omoyele Sowore started advocacies for corrupt less governance against the Nigerian government. This reason he began Sahara reporters- an online website in New York so all his aims can be achieved.
Following their refusal to accept advert proposals and financial support from the Nigerian government according to Shenon Philip, a New York Times journalist, Sowore’s Sahara Reporters enjoyed the backing of the Ford Foundation and Omidyar Foundation through financial grants.
His Social and Political Views
In an article “The new scramble for Africa” published by the U.K Guardian newspaper, Sowore argued that Africans are still jiving under postcolonial of the former liberation warriors and authoritarian autocrats, fifty years after colonial and independence battles were fought.
He said, it is vital for the country to upgrade the antiquated information of Africa available to Americans – starting from the angle that our liberation leaders are democrats, when, in reality, the opposite is a fact.
Sowore’s political views and ideology revolves around Democratic – Socialism, he is an advocate of “personal democracy”. This ideology is to unleash the immense creativity and capabilities of all individuals, transforming their social and political landscape by involving them in all political processes. According to him, this is the desperate change Nigeria needs, to “spice up” what he sees as a “tasteless” Nigerian political environment.
Here is a fitting reference. In March 2018, during an interview with the posterity media – an online media outlet in Lagos, he argued that his political aim would help to safeguard and nurture Nigeria’s democracy, provide a platform through which the Nigerian people could hold their leaders accountable, and allow every Nigerian citizen to have a voice as citizen activists and citizen journalists.
In implementing and actualizing his political and social ideology, he formed African Action Congress (AAC) in August 2018. Following the formation, the party held its national convention in the same year and he emerged unchallenged as the party’s Presidential candidate.
Why Sowore’s Arrest
After the February 2019 general elections which gave president Buhari a second-term presidential seat, different criticism was labeled on him as to his administration’s deadly crackdown on human rights. Sowore has revealed that Nigeria needs revolution partly because the elections were not credible, along with a list of other issues ranging from corruption to ineptitude. Thus, he became the arrowhead of a planned nationwide protest tagged #RevelotionNow which was scheduled for August 5, 2019.
Prior to August 5, he said in Lagos “The series of matches and rallies will continue until we have the Nigeria of our dreams. There is no respect for our dignity as a people and for you to get back that dignity, do as they are doing in Hong Kong; do as they are doing in Algeria…”.
These words were held by the Nigerian government as a felonious statement and were later arrested in the middle night of August 3, in Lagos by the officers of the Department of state service (DSS) headquarters in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, where he has remained till date.
What Both Masses and Government Should Expect
Sowore wasn’t released by the Nigerian government following the September and October different bails granted to him by the federal high court in Abuja, though he was later released and rearrested dramatically in court premises on December 6.
He has not given up while still in detention, because he sees himself as a formidable contender restoring confidence and tipping hope to the hopeless Nigerians and vowed the demolition of the unitary system of government practiced by both All Progressive Congress (APC) and People Democratic Party (PDP) administrations with his newly established African Action Congress (AAC).
“There is nothing more important to me in my life than a struggle that will eliminate the unitary type of politics that both APC and PDP are playing”.
“Whether you like it or not, the revolution will happen. It is only a matter of time,” he said. This is an insight of himself in the nearest future as he insists that revolution will still happen in the country in favor of the masses.
