Omoyele Sowore is a well-known social activist with a radical bent; he is also the proprietor of Sahara Reporters known worldwide. Recently, he is in the news for trying to drive home the need to have Nnamdi Kanu released from prolonged detention.
Stories by Clement Ebaku and Lucy Adebayo, reporting from Abuja.
Had Omoyele Sowore not been known as the proprietor of Sahara Reporters, he would have been dubbed as a freedom fighter! His actions portray him more as a military officer than the ordinary publisher of an online newspaper that he is; Sowore has a larger than life appearance, armed with the heart of a Lion; only Lions dare the impossible, just like him confronting the State often, again and again; if you are seeing him for the first time, you may be deceived; that’s because he has this benign looks, simple eyes and almost an innocent looking face. Those close to him say they have never seen him scowl or frown. Yet, his name strikes fear in the hearts of mostly corrupt civil servants who frantically evade him. With his hands always in his pockets, you would think he is such a harmless bystander and very unassuming; but the truth is, over time he has come to be dreaded by the society at large.
A very crafty genius and quick thinker, Sowore has carefully cut his teeth fighting corruption and for this cause, has travelled far and wide overcoming roadblocks or what you call barriers; definitely, for people like him, the journey is never rosy, laced with thorns and figs; at the last count, he has been in and out of prison, so much that Wardens and Police men know him like the back of their hand; but to laugh with him is out of the question; because, beneath his ordinary looking face, is the heart of stone, a deadly and fanatically stickler for justice; the late M.K.O. Abiola, once said, no man can stand in front of a moving train; Sowore seems likely to do that; there is no iota of fear in him; this is a man who tread where angels fear and he has proven it time and again. Now, he is on the verge of fighting another cause, this time, to free a trapped political activist like himself, in the person of Nnamdi Kanu who has been considered a torn in the flesh of past governments. Only this time, a new Sheriff in the person of Bola Ahmed Tinubu is on board as president of the nation! Like him, Sowore,
Tinubu, himself has battled his way to prominence and at one time, escaped from the country through the forest after being branded as NADECO Chieftain. Would you call him a freedom fighter? Not really. In Tinubu’s case, he was more of a visionary than a freedom fighter; Tinubu was more on enforcing a government that suits the people; he fought for democracy and pushed for equality and justice. That’s how he became a senator, two-time governor and now president of the Federal Republic. Tinubu owns various media which he used to canvass for human rights extensively but now has paid off in his elevation as commander in chief! Between him and Sowore, there is a wide gulf in the sense that Tinubu was for the emancipation of the general Nigerian public while Sowore was more of a distinct battle to promote his cause! This is where the clash is: Tinubu wants more for Nigerians while Sowore wants more for his self-adulation and elevation as a star boy! This might probably be wrong, but the bad news is that Tinubu’s image and his good works towers far above that of Sowore.
Within two years, Tinubu has done what no other Nigerian president has done. Just injecting life into long suffering and abandoned pensioners not to mention approving student loans is enough. Tinubu has been on the path of growth, touching every facet of life; there are more in the making though, but for a Sowore to call for acts of this nature at this time is considered purely a reversal of past gains! Like the elders would say, there are other ways to the river, not necessarily through demonstrations, march past, disruption of public life and threats that most often end up in gratification of the movers! Sowore can chose to go through the courts or any other available means; the time has come for him to jettison populists programmes as this. He should leave Nigerians out of the fray, because, at the end shops would be closed, some people arrested and others unfortunate gets killed! What then is the aim? Would Sowore swear that this march is organized with his own Kobo? How then do you drag unsuspecting Nigerians into the unknown?
There are Igbo senators, henchmen in Tinubu’s government who ought to take up this cause, but chose not to. For Sowore to cry more than the bereaved, exposés some undertone, and this shouldn’t be Tinubu’s problem! At this time and age, it is easier to read the undertone; where is the money coming from to facilitate this project? And what is the endgame for Sowore? Well, maybe Tinubu would blink, but that remains to be seen! Don’t forget that Tinubu is also known as the Lion of Bourdillion, that’s a name tested and derived from years of brushes with the state and the Lords that ruled the land! If no one is reading this, I think Sowore should; Nigerians are tired from disruptions of this nature! At least the “No Kings” demo recently held in the United State was done peacefully.
