Sowore: I knew I was slated for arrest by DSS but had to come home

…says ‘I never expected any positive impact from Tinubu’

A civil right activist, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, was the candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in last year’s general elections. In this interview with OLAOLU OLADIPO, he talked about his stay in the United States of America where he had the opportunity to reunite with his family after five years. He also recounted his experience in the hands of security agents on his arrival as well as his appraisal of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led government. Excerpts:

Welcome back to the country from your recent trip to the United States of America…

Thank you so much.

How did the trip go considering the fact that you travelled to see your family after some time in Nigeria?

The trip was great considering that we have been separated for about four to five years. During that period, I never saw my kids and my wife. It was amazing for me to be united with them once again. It was a good opportunity for me to be a father again and to do what fathers should do with their kids. It was also refreshing for me to be in an environment where some form of sanity exists. It is a society where you see children go to proper schools, where they have good medical facilities. I was also able to see my doctors to check up on my health status. It was an opportunity for me to explore another world, away from what obtains here in Nigeria. I needed this because of my unjust restriction by the government for about three years.

Why did you come back?

If you remember, I had a pending case sometimes in May. I was here for the case and I went back at the end of the month of May. Nigeria has always been my home. I can never abandon Nigeria, my fatherland. I have said it repeatedly that I will never adopt the citizenship of any other country. Though I have a residency in the US, I have never applied for citizenship and I don’t intend to. I have realised since I got my admission to the University that we have a country to save. Unfortunately, the country we intend to save has fallen into the wrong hands.

You came back to the country in a very controversial manner in the sense that your usual friends, I mean the DSS operatives, were already waiting and they eventually picked you up. Could you tell us what happened between you and the DSS?

I was aware that they were going to pick me up. A DSS memo to that effect leaked to me. In the memo, it was written that I had been upgraded in their watch list and that I was going to be arrested at the airport upon my arrival. This fact or information was made public through various media platforms. Most of you in the media knew about this. Before then the comptroller general of immigration had announced after the #Endbadgovernance protest that they (the Immigration Service) had put some people on the watch list, though they didn’t mention names. But then, most of the media houses reported that they were referring to me. So, I knew since then that something had happened to my status.

And yet you came home?

(Cuts in) I came home. I have to because I wasn’t coming home for vacation. I am here because this is my country.

You never harbour any fear of being attacked or killed?

I was attacked in 1994 by cultists who were instigated by the university management and the police. I recollect that event vividly. When the school was about to open that year, we had been expelled by the school. The management of the school had put our names at the school gates. When we got to the gate, we saw no fewer than 500 policemen who were instructed not to allow us into the school. The instruction to them was that we were no longer students of the school. The cultists had been readmitted and were already on campus. They (the cultists) also sent messages to us, I mean the student union leaders, not to step foot on the campus. They told us that we would be killed if we came to the campus. These were the people we barely escaped some few months earlier. To beat the trap set for us, we gathered somewhere at Ojuelegba and we had to rent a car. I had to disguise myself The management said returning students must come with their parents and I pretended to be a parent. But the students I was going to use as a decoy ran away when they saw the police. The only reason I got in was because the driver didn’t know who he was carrying. We entered the school somehow but when the students saw me they were very happy and the police had to run away. Many of the students thought I had been killed and they were surprised to see me. They followed me in droves and when we got to the Senate Building, we demanded the restoration of the Students Union Government. We swore-in Malcom Fabiyi who had been elected before I was attacked. He was sworn-in by the Speaker, Mr. Claver Okpara. After that, we demanded the university to erase the information contained in their bulletin saying we had been expelled. The cult members who were waiting to attack us ran away and many of them never came back to finish their courses. Some of them boldly stood around and sent an emissary to beg us to allow them to face their studies and graduate in peace. I am just telling you this so that you will know that I have faced worse situations in the past.

Are you in any way worried that this trend is happening under the watch of a pro-democracy advocate who is currently leading the country?

(Cuts in) No! Only a few people who understand the pro-democracy movement know better. Those people will not in any way be surprised by what these people in government are currently doing with the country. These guys weren’t part of the pro-democracy movement when we were advocating for the return of civil rule in the 1990s.

Really?

Yes! They only joined the pro-democracy movement after they lost out in the power game with (former Head of State, General Sani) Abacha. (President Bola) Tinubu was one of the senators who were part of former (Military President Ibrahim) Babangida’s diarchy. Does that look like pro-democracy activism to you? Don’t forget that Babangida has set up a system where you could become a senator while he was a military president. That’s a diarchy and any serious activist can’t be part of that arrangement. He was part of the Babangida regime in 1992. He was part of the Babangida boys in the Senate, including the late Chief Moshood Abiola himself. I just have to make that clarification. They joined us after they lost out. He (President Tinubu) didn’t lose out completely under Babangida, they lost out under Abacha. He and Abiola went to meet Abacha when we were agitating for the restoration of the June 12 Presidential Election. They told Abacha to take over and hand it over to us later To me, that was foolishness. When that arrangement did not work out between them and their friend, they ran away from the country.

Are you saying they made a deal with the late General Abacha?

Yes! Abiola himself initially ran away but we told him that we couldn’t be fighting for you when you were overseas. That was why Abiola came back home. I need to make this clear. A lot of people think that, somehow, we all started fighting for democracy. We on the platforms of NANS and CD (Campaign for Democracy) started fighting for democracy.

But he was part of NADECO?

NADECO was formed in 1994 after we had forced the military to conduct an election in 1993. It gained prominence after the annulment of the 1993 election. It was formed in Lagos in the house of the late Chief Alfred Rewane. That was when NADECO was formed. Before that, we had been advocating for democracy through various pro-democracy groups for a long time but I joined them in 1989 when I got admitted into the University of Lagos. The students under NANS had been fighting the military since 1984 when (General Muhammadu) Buhari came to power. People like (Chief Femi) Falana in 1986. Before NANS was formed, NUNS which was led by the late Pa Segun Okeowo had been fighting the military in the 1970s. Their series of advocacy led to the popular Ali-Must-Go protests. That was an agitation against the (General Olusegun) Obasanjo led military regime at that time.

You contested against President Bola Tinubu but now, he is in charge of the country. If you are to do an appraisal of his regime, would you say that his government has made positive impacts so far?

(Cuts in) In the first place, I don’t accept his leadership of the country. In a way to clearly understand my position, if a guy told you that he would continue from where Buhari stopped, what do you expect from him? The question is, where did Buhari stop? Buhari stopped after he decimated the Naira; he even tried to change it. He did everything to rig the election for Bola Tinubu who is their current person there. Buhari stopped with the removal of payment of fuel subsidy.

The people who took over said he would continue from there, what did you expect him to do?

I fought Buhari until he left because I never accepted his regime. I have said it before, part of the delusion of the average Nigerian is that somehow, elections are platforms for solving their problems. Unfortu- nately, those charged with onducting elections no longer conduct free, fair and transparent elections. What we get in Nigeria is selection. INEC is just to supervise the process that had been predetermined. The snag is that if we don’t participate the people would not see, they would still have this illusion that things would change if we had participated. People are just believing in a flicker of hope that things would change. Look at those who have made some compromises by joining them and see where they are. I never had any positive hope because I never expected anything positive because there was never any election.