Human Rights

His agitations for a better Nigeria and utter hatred for looters of Nigeria’s wealth have seen him arrested, detained, and in many cases, brutalised.

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For over three decades, human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, has consistently screamed at the ineptitude of government institutions and overly corrupt politicians in Nigeria.null

At 12, he learned to ride a motorcycle so that he could go to the lake to go fishing for food for his entire family every morning before going to school. Born into a polygamous family with sixteen siblings, Sowore developed his passion for the media in the days of military rule in Nigeria.

According to him, the vibrant criticism from the media then towards the ruling government gave him a sense of direction of what he wanted to do.

Omoyele SoworeSaharaReporters Media/Dotun Olawoye

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. Included 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 utter hatred for looters of Nigeria’s wealth have 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.http://saharareporters.com/2021/02/16/sowore50-journey-champion-human-rights

Acknowledging Sowore’s stride in the June 12 struggle in his memoir, a journalist, Niyi Babade, said, “Unannounced they came out of an unmarked grey vehicle and saw the ugly scenes then opened fire on all of us.

I spent some quality time in my resting place (in the) the gutter till I heard the singing voices of the students of the University of Lagos led by Yele Sowore heading to (Moshood) Abiola’s house. I crawled out of my hiding and tried to get an exclusive shot when the hoodlums among the students attacked me and wanted to confiscate my camera but with the heroic effort of Sowore I was spared and allowed to join them as one of the hoodlums and a journalist which then gave me unlimited access to exclusive footage of the day till we got to Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola’s house.”

After being expelled twice for political reasons and because of his student activism, Sowore graduated in 1994, got his final results in May 1995. He had his National Youth Service Corps programme in Yola, Adamawa State, from 1995-1996 but was never given a discharge certificate to date.

“It was purely political. The first time I was expelled was because of my participation in the Babangida Must Go/anti-SAP (Structural Adjustment Programme) protests that grounded Nigeria. The second time was after the military authorities targeted the student leadership by empowering and employing the services of cult gangs on campuses against us. It was at the height of the June 12 protests against the regime of General Sani Abacha,” he said in an interview in 2016.

The activist fled Nigeria to the United States in 1999 for urgent medical treatment of his vital organs.

Upon relocating to the US, Sowore continued with his activism by starting Sahara Reporters, a citizen journalism platform that continues to expose corruption. https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1202945414854586369&lang=en&origin=http%3A%2F%2Fsaharareporters.com%2F2021%2F02%2F16%2Fsowore50-journey-champion-human-rights&theme=light&widgetsVersion=889aa01%3A1612811843556&width=550px

Omoyele Sowore was an active participant of the Pro-Democracy Movement in the early 90s.

In this old video, Yele protests against a military take over of MKO Abiola’s burial ceremony#Yoruba

Source: Yele Sowore DL pic.twitter.com/WeJXXxzTFQ— Yoruba History – by NNP (@YorubaHistory) December 6, 2019

Speaking on how he founded Sahara Reporters, he said, “The idea was inspired by citizen journalism that emerged out of anti-WTO (World Trade Organisation) protests in Seattle, Washington the US. I was totally taken by the fact that ordinary citizens could tell the riveting and powerful stories of an unfolding event that had been ignored by the mainstream media. I started thinking really hard about replicating that experience for Nigerians and Africans, but with a particular focus on corruption. 

“Before establishing Sahara Reporters I had tried a few collaborations with others, but those efforts went nowhere.

What collaborations and with who? My first collaboration was with Jonathan Elendu, founder of Elendureports.com. I also sought to pitch my investigative reports to several Nigerian newspapers. One or two newspapers picked a report here and there, but the papers were mostly not interested, or they were too scared to pick up the explosive reporting I was sending to them.

“I’ve always been a communicator, as a matter of fact. As a student union leader at the University of Lagos, I served 27,000 students. To lead that many students demand a great deal of flair for mass communication. And we did a lot of communicating. In my foray into social media, I’d say the Internet provided an opportunity to reach vastly more people. I started with the emergence of this great technology that has disrupted the status quo. 

“In some ways, I am by nature somebody who questions and challenges and disrupts unfair orders or systems. So everything came together very well. I also realised that when people are far away from home, living in a variety of foreign countries, they frequently yearn to know what’s happening at home. In a sense, I started by acting as a reporter to and for those kinds of people.”

Sowore was arrested by men of the Department of State Services, a domestic intelligence agency with a history of repression on 3 August, 2019 ahead of a planned nationwide #RevolutionNow protest.