Sowore: Human rights defender flying AAC’s flag for presidency

Omoyele Sowore is a human rights activist, writer, lecturer and founder of the popular online news platform, Sahara Reporters. He is a pro-democracy campaigner and convener of #RevolutionNow protest in Nigeria.

In August 2018, he founded the African Action Congress (AAC) and ran as its presidential candidate in the 2019 general elections. He is also running for the presidency on the same platform in this year’s polls.

Sowore studied Geography and Regional Planning at the University of Lagos from 1989 to 1995. His academic programme was, however, extended by two extra years after being expelled twice for political reasons and student activism.

He was born on February 16, 1971 in Kiribo, a suburban town in Ese-Odo Local Government Area of Ondo State.

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Agitations for a better Nigeria

Sowore was leader of the #RevolutionNow protest, which was first staged on August 5, 2019 and the second phase on the same date in 2020, held across major cities in Nigeria.

The peaceful demonstration led by him, was, however, met with a clampdown by security operatives, resulting in arrests and incarceration of many protesters including the human rights activist. But a Federal High Court in Abuja declared his arrest as illegal.

Delivering judgment in the fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by Sowore, the judge, Obiora Egwuato, ordered the State Security Service (SSS) to pay N1million to the activist.

This came about three months after another judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, Anwuli Chikere, ordered the SSS to pay N2 million to Sowore over the unlawful seizure of his mobile phone at the point of his arrest in 2019.

Delivering judgment in the human rights suit filed by Sowore, the Judge, Mrs Chikere, on December 8, 2021, also ordered the SSS to immediately release the iPhone and a cash of N10, 000 which were alleged to have been forcefully taken away from him without court warrant.

The decision came as another affirmation of court decisions that had validated the #RevolutionNow protest, and declared the arrest of others who participated in it as illegal, although the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation continued to prosecute him for organising the protest.

One of Sowore’s lawyers, Marshal Abubakar, who is of the law firm of a prominent human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, described the judgment as another victory recorded against the SSS.

The demonstration was to demand the reversal of what they described as “anti-people policies implemented by the President Buhari-led administration.”

Sowore demanded the release of all political detainees and prisoners of conscience across the country and the dismissal of trumped-up charges levelled against them.

His team of protesters also demanded for payment of a living wage and social security benefits to all Nigerians so that they can live a dignified existence.

Others included, respect for the rule of law and an end to the victimisation of critics and extra-judicial killings by law enforcement officers.

AAC candidate for Feb. 25 poll

Sowore, again, emerged as the presidential candidate of the AAC for the 2023 general election during the primaries last year as the party’s delegates elected him at the AAC’s national convention held in Abuja.

Before his emergence at the convention, Sowore had announced his decision to step down as the AAC chairman, a position he earned through a court judgment.

An Appeal Court in Abuja had affirmed Sowore as the substantive chairman of the party after several months of legal tussle with the Leonard Ezenwa-led faction of the party.

Student activism

In 1989, Sowore took part in student demonstrations protesting the conditions of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan of $120 million to be used for a Nigerian oil pipeline. Among the conditions of the IMF loan, was a reduction in the number of universities in Nigeria from 28 to 5.

As the students’ union president of the University of Lagos between 1992 and 1994, he led a series of protests and demonstrations against the then military government.

His agitations for a better Nigeria and hatred for looters of Nigeria’s wealth had seen him arrested, detained, and in many cases, brutalised. He was also deeply involved in the demand for a democratic government taking over from military rule on June 12, 1993.

After being expelled twice and because of his student activism, Sowore graduated in 1994, and got his final results in May 1995. He had his National Youth Service Corps programme in Yola, Adamawa State, from 1995-1996.

Similarly, Sowore led 5,100 students in protest against the Nigerian government in 1992. The protest resulted in police opening fire and killing seven protesters while Sowore was arrested and tortured.

Sowore played a role in the June 12, 1993 presidential election after the annulment.

In one of his interviews, Sowore explained how he advised the acclaimed winner of the election, Moshood Abiola, popularly known as MKO Abiola on the June 12 saga.

He narrated his first personal encounter with Abiola, and why he chose on August 29, 1993 to stand by the politician following the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election by the Ibrahim Babangida-led military junta.

Sowore, who was a student leader during the political struggle that followed the annulment, recalled how he bravely encouraged Abiola to ignore politicians urging him to abandon the June 12 mandate despite “glaringly winning” the election.

He said: “Inside his expansive living room on Toyin Street in Ikeja, we were ushered into a gathering of politicians holding a ‘strategy session’ to ask MKO Abiola to tone down his challenge against General Ibrahim Babangida and his military cohorts after they annulled Nigeria’s freest election held on June 12, 1993. I was obviously the ‘poorest’ person in the room on that fateful day (I had bathroom slippers).

“It was my first time meeting Chief Abiola in person but he recognised me and said ‘oh student leader, welcome to our meeting, what should we do now as my friends have annulled the people’s mandate?’

“I quickly took the opportunity to lambast the politicians seated. I told Chief Abiola his real enemies were right there in the room with him and that they were just busy collecting his money but not fighting for the restoration of his mandate.

“Chief Abiola was uncomfortable and tried changing the topic by praising my organising efforts in fighting for the restoration of his June 12 mandate. He quickly dragged a massive bag containing cash and proceeded to give our team N800, 000, saying it was a token for our ‘transportation.’

“I politely rejected the cash haul telling him, jocularly, that first, we didn’t come to visit him in a jumbo jet so the issue of jumbo transportation money won’t arise.

“In fact, I doubt that the SUG (Students’ Union Government) bus we took there was worth N300, 000 in those days. I was firm in telling him our struggle wasn’t for his sake and that our fight was not for him but the future of Nigeria.”

Political pundits have argued that the platform upon which Sowore is contesting the election is weak and unpopular and that he would likely lose again at the February 25 poll.

But Sowore had in a recent interview said he has an organic structure to win the election.

The human rights activist in a Channels TV interview said his organic structures were Nigerians who he said were tired of failed governments and yearning for real change.

He said the people have always been his structure since 2019, explaining that he has spent most of his life fighting for justice for the people.

He also disclosed he was the first person to start the #EndSARS protest in Abuja before it expanded across the country.

“I was the first person to start #EndSARS in Abuja. I was the first person to take young people to the Police Headquarters. The first ever #EndSARS protest, I led it.

“I was the first person to call the people and ask them, do you want us to hit the streets of Abuja to trigger #EndSARS? Let’s make it happen. Subsequently, it led to the #EndSARS. I went with Deji Adeyanju and Aisha Yesufu. I was the one who called on Falz through his dad and we eventually spoke and they did their own in Lagos and #EndSARS grew,” he said.