Following the court order, which will keep him in detention for the next few weeks, Akani Alaka looks at the life and activism of Omoyele Sowore, the presidential candidate of African Action Congress and convener of #RevolutionNow. Under the hashtags, #RevolutionNow, #FreeSowore, among others, supporters and associates of Sowore, who is also the publisher of the popular Sahara Reporters online newspaper, have begun counting how many days the former students’ union activist has spent in court-sanctioned detention.
Last Wednesday, activists including some leaders of civil society groups defied truckloads of security operatives at the popular Unity Fountain, Abuja to lend their voices to the growing calls for release from detention of the former presidential candidate and convener of #RevolutionNow protests and other “prisoners of conscience.”
Deji Adeyanju, the convener of Concerned Nigerians (CN), who led the protesters, vowed that the protests to free Sowore and other detained Nigerians would continue even if President Muhammadu Buhari withdraws all the security operatives deployed to fight insurgency in the North-east and other parts of the country to stop the agitation for the release of the students’ union leader-turned politician.
Sowore was arrested on Saturday, August 3, 2019 in Lagos by operatives of the Department of State Services and subsequently moved to Abuja the next day in a bid to stop well-publicised nationwide protests against the perceived failings of the Buhari administration.
The protests, scheduled to begin on August 5, were publicised with the hashtag, #RevolutionNow, a term interpreted by the secret police as a call for a forceful change of government. “If we are operating as a responsible security organisation and someone is calling for a revolution in Nigeria, we must understand the meaning of revolution. Primarily, it means a revolt, it means insurrection, it means insurgency, it means the forceful takeover of government and we are operating a democratic system in Nigeria,” the Public Relations Officer of DSS, Mr. Peter Afunanya, later told journalists on the reasons Sowore was arrested in Abuja.
The secret police had consequently approached a court in Abuja, asking for permission to detain the activist for 90 days in a motion ex parte filed at the court under Section 27(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention Amendment) Act. DSS said it needed to keep Sowore for such a long time to enable it to conclude the investigation of the allegation of terrorism it levelled against him.
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But the court ruled that the Service could only keep him for 45 days with a leeway that the agency could apply for a renewal of the detention order for another 45 days. “The return date shall be 45 days from today, August 8, 2019. It, therefore, means that this suit is adjourned till September 21, 2019,” Justice Taiwo Taiwo ruled.
From presidential candidate to mooting revolution
In essence, except the Federal Government yields to calls for the release of the Sahara Reporters publisher, he is bound to remain in the custody of DSS until 21 September 2019.
Many Nigerians, including lawyers, had described the invocation of the Terrorism Act against Sowore as well as the 45 days permission to detain him as a miscarriage of justice.
Indeed, Lagos lawyer and activist, Femi Falana, SAN, told journalists that Sowore’s case is an opportunity to test the constitutional validity of the 90-day detention period allowed for detention of suspects under the Terrorism Act.
But while the right of the citizens to protest against policy of government is constitutionally guaranteed, some Nigerians, especially supporters of the Buhari administration believe that the call by the former ACC presidential candidate, which he did in concert with group, the Global Coalition for Security and Democracy in Nigeria, was a step taken too far.
The Presidency, described the call as an “attempt to incite citizens into a revolution against their own democratic rights,” in a statement issued after clampdown by security operatives ensured that those who tried to carry on the protests on the scheduled date of 5 August despite the arrest of Sowore were not able to do so.
In the same vein, the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and some of its leading members accused Sowore of attempting to get from the backdoor what he could not get from the front door with his defeat by Buhari in the 2019 presidential election.
Such claims notwithstanding, there are other Nigerians who believe that though there are grounds for protest against the Buhari government, the ability of the publisher of Sahara Reporters to organise the kind of uprising that would lead to the overthrow of the government is doubtful.
Indeed, the belief of many was with the arrest of Sowore, the government gave more publicity to the planned protests than the organisers had done. For instance, support for the protest, especially on the social media grew after the arrest.
Among the criticisms that followed the protest was that the former presidential candidate might have unwittingly been granted his desire to become a face of the protest against the Nigerian government.
Talking obviously tongue in cheek, activist Kayode Ogundamisi said the arrest of Sowore prevented Nigerians from knowing if “#RevolutionNow would have really taken over Nigerian government”, as planned by the protesters in a tweet immediately after the news of the DSS action broke.
The UK-based activist, who was part of the campaign for President Buhari’s second term, added that a sensible approach by government would have been to allow the protests to take place while putting in place measures to protect the public: “If it turns out to be peaceful protests, let it be and take the message. If people break the law, apply the law.
“Like Nnamdi Kanu was elevated with his arrest, you just added another security challenge to the multiple challenges we are facing in Nigeria by picking @YeleSowore.”
The activist as presidential candidate
Sowore has been involved in activism geared towards greater accountability and strengthening of Nigeria’s democracy, using various platforms until he decided to contest the presidency on the platform of AAC in the 2019 general election.
He had presented himself as the ‘leftist’ candidate and an alternative to President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who were believed and eventually turned out to be the major contenders in the presidential election ballot, which featured over 70 candidates.
He had described his incursion into politics, as a progression of his agitation and struggle, as a student union leader under the military regimes to the country’s return to democracy. “Since 1999, my focus has been on improving and sanitising the democratic space. This is a natural progression of my commitment to moving Nigeria forward. This will not be politics as usual. I have always been a part of the movement to move Nigeria forward. I have always played a leading role in that movement,” Sowore said while promising to mobilise the “ignored and dispossessed people,” especially the deprived youths behind his ambition.
He also cited the examples of former leaders like President Barrack Obama and Nelson Mandela as activists. Sowore added that his ambition was driven by the failures of the Buhari government to effectively tackle the problem of corruption and lack of leadership in tackling the security crises posed by Boko Haram, the herdsmen-farmers conflicts, among others.
He attributed the many problems being faced by the country to lack of quality leadership, which he would provide if elected.
“It is clear to me that the challenge Nigeria now faces, and in truth has suffered for some time, is a crisis in leadership,” he said.
To change the undesirable course the country was on, the then AAC presidential candidate had promised to institute a new regime of battle against corruption, end the problems of the nation’s epileptic power supply, insecurity, unemployment and create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive if elected.
“Corruption thrives because our leaders have lacked the political will to act against corrupt officials. I will act decisively to deal with this national cancer,” he had promised.
These were in addition to some of his populist promises, including the plan to increase the national minimum wage from the then N18,000, to N100,000, set aside $3.6 billion to provide homes for millions of Nigerians among others.
The AAC flag bearer had also run his campaign in a manner many Nigerians would consider unconventional, as he traversed the country, selling his candidacy through meetings with students and youth organisations, organised labour, artisans, religious and traditional leaders, among others.
He also held a series of town hall meetings in and outside the country in the course of the campaign, which, according to him, was majorly funded through crowdsourcing of donations and personal funds.
Sowore was able to get the endorsement of some radical left-leaning groups as well as students in some campuses across the country and was optimistic of victory, describing the presidential election as a three-horse race between him and the ruling APC and the main opposition PDP candidates. “If there’s a free and fair election, there’s no way we’ll lose. It has turned to a three-horse race in which the AAC, the PDP and the APC are the main competitors,” the activist said.
It turned out that the AAC presidential candidate overrated his chances, as he scored 33,953 votes compared to Buhari’s 15,191,847 and Atiku’s 11, 262, 978 votes according to results of the Saturday, February 23 presidential election declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. But he had declared on his twitter handle that the election was not free and fair hours before the results were announced.
“Good morning Nigeria! Elections are over, but it is de javu! This election wasn’t free and fair. As you can see, even the “winners” can’t celebrate! #TakeItBack,” he posted.
Thus, like some other candidates, the ACC took refuge under the claim that the election was rigged. But critics believe that without a national structure backed by tonnes of cash, AAC could not have won an election in which religion and ethnicity were the major selling points of the parties.
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Plotting Sudan-like revolution in Nigeria
After the election, Sowore briefly disappeared from the national discourse until some weeks ago, when he was seen, having a meeting with Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, somewhere outside the country. That meeting was followed up with the return of AAC presidential candidate to Nigeria. He and members of the group, Global Coalition for Security and Democracy in Nigeria, soon began the call for ‘revolution’ in Nigeria.
In a series of videos posted on social media, Sowore and his group called for “a very clean, quick, succinct revolutionary process that will put an end to the shenanigans of government, that will put an end to oppression, the corruption of government.”
Some of Sowore’s critics, who spoke to The Nigerian Xpress last week said the ACC presidential candidate seemed to have copied from the book of the Ugandan singer turned politician, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, known as Bobi Wine, who has become a torn the in the flesh of the over three decades government of President Yoweri Museveni. They also listed Julius Malema, the leader of Economic Freedom Fighters, EFF political party, who is fighting to overthrow the status quo in South Africa, as a probable influence on Sowore.
Like the two men, Sowore and members of his group did not only adopt wearing of berets but canvassed for populist policies. For instance, Sowore’s group said the botched August 5 national protest was “against the ruling class, its policies.”
They also listed their key demands to include payment of the N30,000 minimum by government at all levels, abolition of tuition fees in universities and secondary schools, a stop to killings going on in the country and the sack of all service chiefs, end to estimated billing by the power companies and provision of pre-paid meters for free, immediate release of all political prisoners, including El-Zakzaky and his wife and provision of employment for the youths.
Yet, Sowore’s main motivation seemed to be the recent successful uprising against the government of Sudan. “As you know, they did it in Sudan and it was started by some women. They were making fun of them but they did not stop until doctors joined them, the labour union joined them and what started with five people became 5,000 and 500,000 and became 5,000,000 and the regime fell. So, don’t let anybody deceive you that in asking for a better government or country, you are committing any illegality,” the AAC presidential candidate said while justifying the protests at a meeting with executives of his party.
He also added that the massive protests became inevitable because the opportunity to carry out a revolution through the ballot box was hijacked by lack of credibility in the 2019 general election. “We didn’t choose to go for revolution; they chose it by ensuring that there was no level playing field in the last election,” he said.
Activism forged in students’ unionism
Analysts insist that the call for revolution by Sowore is well in tune with the life of activism he has lived since he came to public limelight over two decades ago as the president of University of Lagos Students Union Government at barely over 20 years.
As students’ union leader, he led several protests against policies and actions of the then military government during which he was arrested and locked up. He was also an active participant in the campaign to revalidate the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election. Indeed, there are photographs in circulation, showing him behind the late MKO Abiola, the presumed winner of that election during the campaign against the annulment of the election. He was injected with a dangerous substance in reprisal when he moved against cultists at the university.
As a youth corps member, he was sacked by the management of Adamawa State Broadcasting Corporation, his place of primary assignment, following his criticism of the circumstances, surrounding the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa, an environmental activist. For mobilising his colleagues against the government, Sowore was arrested by men of the State Security Service and detained for two weeks on his last day, as a corps member. The graduate of Geography and Planning later earned a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Columbia University, New York, USA, among other qualifications.
Sowore, who was an Adjunct Professor in a New York university, has lectured in different Ivy League schools in the United States, even as he never took his eyes off fighting for a better Nigeria.
The Publisher of Sahara Reporters
The quest for a better country led him to establish Sahara Reporters in 2005. Sowore said he established the website to disrupt the Nigerian media space. “Our mission is to do as much evidence-based reporting as possible. We want to make sure that we consistently shame and make life difficult for the thieves, plundering Nigeria and holding down the country’s progress,” Sowore said.
Not a few people will agree with him that he has achieved that aim. The website has over the years successfully exposed corruption in the public and private sectors, though it has also come under criticism for rushing to publish without the proper information.
Depending on the focus of Sahara Reporters at any particular time, Sowore is either seen as a tool in the hands of the opposition or a supporter of the government. Sowore credited the development of the spirit of activism and desire to fight injustice to sometime in 1980 when a group of policemen invaded his community, Kiribo in Ondo State, South-west Nigeria.
Youths in the community had moved against the policemen whom they accused of extorting money from market women. Sowore said he had watched helplessly, as a nine-year-old boy from his mother’s shop, how the youths were brutalised by the police officers, who did not spare the women and even went on to rape one of them.
“As I grew up and realised the implication of what I witnessed, I decided to dedicate my life to the fight for human rights,” said.
But even as he remained in detention, his party has also been embroiled in crisis
