Tuesday, December 10,
2019 / 08:40AM / OpEd By Reuben Abati* / Header Image
Credit: Ecographics
The mishandling of the Omoyele Sowore case has become clearly
an albatross for the Nigerian government, an embarrassment for the incumbent
Federal Government and a public relations disaster for both the Department of
State Services and Nigeria as a whole. All of that was patently avoidable.
Inadvertently, the Federal Government has turned Omoyele Sowore into a "hero",
a symbol for resilience against official impunity in Nigeria, and a poster
figure for courage and boldness. In using the law to paint him as "an enemy of
the state", they have ended up painting the Nigerian state as an "enemy of the
rule of law, due process and judicial independence." This was a station Nigeria
supposedly left with the return to civilian rule in 1999. What is happening in
the Sowore case is akin to a turning back of the hands of the clock. Whatever
happens, the Nigerian government with the psycho/melodrama, last week at a
Federal High Court in Abuja now finds itself in a Catch-22 situation.
Whatever may be the weight and proof of evidence at
the disposal of the prosecutors, the mismanagement of the optics and the
process, has turned Sowore into a hero. If he is convicted in the long run, he
will be considered a prisoner of conscience. Even if the Federal Government
enters a nolle prosequi, and the case
dies judicially, Sowore could run as far as he can on the global stage with the
national honour that the Nigerian Government would have mistakenly bestowed
upon him. He and his followers have shown a greater and better understanding of
the dialectics of power, history and protest than the Nigerian Government. A
basic rule in this dynamics is to know the enemy, and adopt a "counter-revolutionary" strategy. In this instance, the Nigerian Government has so far played Sowore's
game and I dare say they have played into his hands. Even if they win in the
court of law, or succeed in further violating the orders of the courts, I do
not see the government winning in the courts of local and international public
opinion. For President Muhammadu Buhari who by now should worry more about his
legacy, as the clock ticks and time passes, this should be a matter of great
concern beyond the incredulous statements issued by Nigeria's secret police and
the unhelpful, chest-beating declarations on his behalf by Presidential
spokesman, Garba Shehu. It is sad that the Buhari administration is repeating
the mistake of 1984, most unnecessarily.
Sowore is the owner of the game so far and that is not
by happenstance. He may not qualify as a man of ideology to the extent that he
is not popularizing either scientific socialism or its alternative, caught as
he is at the intersection of neo-liberalism complexity and a revolutionary
conviction that is couched in shades of populism and opportunism. But his
mastery of the psychology of protest is unimpeachable. He is definitely not new
to activism and its tactics. A graduate of Geography and Regional Planning of
the University of Lagos, Nigeria (1989 - 1995), and holder of a Master's degree
in Public Administration, Columbia University, United States, Sowore's life has
been one of consistent involvement in protest. He was, between 1992 and 1994,
President of the Student's Union Government at the University of Lagos. This
was at a time corruption and cultism were reportedly rife at that university.
Sowore turned the SUG into a machinery for exposing cultists and corrupt
elements. The University expelled him twice. It took him six years to complete
a four-year programme. In 1992, he led an army of 5, 100 students against the
Ibrahim Babangida military government. Many activists were killed. Sowore
survived. He was also a June Twelver: the pro-democracy coalition that rejected
the annulment of the 1993 Presidential election that was won by Chief M.K.O
Abiola. He stood with other men of conscience at the barricades. Many were
killed and maimed. The Abacha military hauled hundreds of persons into
jail. Sowore would eventually find his
way to a life in exile in the United States where he created an online
platform, Sahara Reporters, through
which he launched another campaign against excesses in Nigeria.
I know Sowore. Let me rephrase that: I know his type,
that is his persona. There are people like him who are psychologically wired to
find something to fight, or protest against. It is the adrenalin that drives them. They are
motivated by the urge to change either the world or their immediate
environment, and they take on that task as a mission. Whoever tries to offer
them a contrary advice does so in vain; they believe that it is in a life of
struggle that the meaning of life inheres. This may place their lives and the
lives of others at risk but they often do not care. Their vision of reality is
to identify a fault line in the immediate environment and seek to change it.
The more you try to persuade them otherwise, the more they insist. When they
are bored with a particular mode of intervention, they invent new ones. They
often come across as selfish, stubborn and ambitious, but the curious thing is
that the Establishment in seeking to protect the status quo, helps the cause of
such persons by going after them with the coercive instruments of state and
power. For many years, Sowore was known as a students' union activist,
anti-corruption crusader, blogger and social critic. In 2018, he decided to
join partisan politics. He founded and registered a political party, the
African Action Congress (AAC) and was chosen as the Presidential Candidate of
the party. His main message was that Nigeria had been captured by
unconscionable, incompetent and corrupt elements to the people's disadvantage and that
the country needed to be taken back to the people. He ran a spirited campaign,
falling back on his old constituency - the youth of Nigeria and students' groups across the country. He spoke the language of the streets, and relied on
street credibility. He didn't dress like the other politicians. He didn't speak
their language. He had unusual ideas - such as proposing to legitimize the
cultivation, consumption and export of marijuana as a way of diversifying the
Nigerian economy and expanding the country's revenue base. He was a maverick, and
an outsider, seeking power. As is the case with his likes, he made significant
impact. His party, the AAC became an issue in the Gubernatorial politics of
Rivers State, even if not in a manner he approved of. In the Presidential
election, Sowore came tenth with 33, 953 votes (0.12%). This should not be seen
in terms of the numbers recorded, but the impact that he made in an election
that was marred by irregularities and reports of manipulation. He had no money,
but it was clear he had a voice and a base, beyond the actual numbers.
Sowore had three options thereafter: he could have
gone back to the United States and focus on his teaching and blogging
engagements, or count his losses and hold his tails between his legs, or
perhaps go to court to challenge the outcome of the 2019 Nigerian Presidential
election. Instead, he condemned the outcome, and launched in due course a
#RevolutionNow movement through which he announced a plan to mobilise Nigerians
generally to "take the government back". It was a bold move. It was a
courageous response. It was an act of affront against the government. But
unpacked, it was obvious that the strongest weapon in Sowore's arsenal was
rhetoric, free speech, orange berets and placards. He had just a handful of people
around him, wearing orange berets, emblazoned with the emblem of his political
party, the AAC, and non-party members who also screamed that they wanted a "revolution". As they defined it, they wanted change and improvement in the
lives of Nigerians. I was convinced that given the sociology of protests in
Nigeria, the #RevolutionNow campaign was at best academic, especially given the
balance of forces in the country, with all the coercive instruments of state
power firmly deposited in the hands of the Buhari administration. Existential
considerations in Nigeria are also so tragically circumstanced. It would take
more than the wearing of berets and the chanting of slogans to move the needle.
Sowore's activism adopts the exact tactics of campus journalism, students' unionism and civil society protest. He does not come across as a man of
violence to warrant the panic response and over-reaction of the state.
But the state, represented by the Department of Sate
Services, Nigeria's secret police, over-reacted. On August 3, 2019 they stormed
Sowore's residence in Lagos and Gestapo-style, abducted him in the middle of
the night, breaking down doors and windows. Members of the #RevolutionNow
protest later went ahead with the protest scheduled for August 5. Hundreds of
them were arrested across Nigeria, notably in Southern Nigeria where the
protest was basically concentrated. Today, the public only hears of two names
in DSS custody: Omoyele Sowore and Olawale Bakare (aka Mandate). It is not
impossible that there are some unnamed and overlooked #RevolutionNow protesters
languishing in some Awaiting Trial prisons in parts of the country. Five months
after Nigeria's general elections in 2019, it suddenly became a crime to use
the word "revolution" or make any reference to "change". Sowore and his allies
dared the state and Nigeria found itself confronted with a most problematic
post-election situation. My argument is: it could all have been handled
differently and far more intelligently.
By over-reacting, the Federal Government has turned
Omoyele Sowore into "the Bobi Wine of Nigeria." Nigeria's Department of State Services has
only managed to increase Sowore's political capital.
He was granted bail on September 24, 2019. The secret
police ignored the court's order. The
Court varied the original terms, upon request by Sowore's counsel and granted
another bail order on October 4.
Nigeria's secret police again disobeyed the court. It constituted itself
into a Court of Appeal, and gave conditions not contained in the Order of
Court. The agency further indulged itself with rationalisation that simply
looked stupid in the eyes of right-thinking members of society: (1) "Sowore and
other detained persons prefer to stay in DSS detention because the agency has
five-star facilities" (does that sound intelligent?) and (2): "Sowore is better
off in the custody of the state secret police so he doesn't get killed by a hit
and run vehicle" (auto-suggestion?), and (3) "The DSS could not release Sowore
and Bakare because nobody had shown up to receive them (how about the counsel -
Femi Falana, SAN, who retorted that he
had made every effort to receive the detained persons, now legitimately granted
bail, but not even the Director General of DSS, who is well known to him, would grant him audience?) and (4) "For
Sowore and Bakare to be released, their sureties must report to the DSS and go
through proper documentation" (was that part of the bail conditions declared by
the Court - No?).
In the face of public outrage, the DSS bared its
fangs. When a group of Concerned Nigerians tried to visit the DSS Headquarters
in Abuja to demand the release of Swore and Bakare in compliance with Court
Orders, they were tear-gassed, brutalized, shot at and dispersed. On December 4,
the court of Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu gave the DSS a 24-hour ultimatum to release
Swore and pay him a sum of N100, 000 as damages or face the wrath of the law. Clearly in response to the outrage and the vitriolic
comments that the government's brazen disregard for the rule of law had
generated, and the threat by the Court to charge the DSS boss for contempt, the
agency promptly complied. Sowore and Bakare were released. On December 5, both
parties were back in Court and the judge fixed the commencement of trial on the
4-count charge against Sowore - treason,
money laundering, insulting the President and cyberstalking - for February 11, 2020. The Judge even praised
the DSS for respecting her ruling of December 4. But then hell broke loose as
the DSS re-arrested Sowore within court premises without an arrest warrant and
an order of detention and without recourse to the court of law. In 24 hours,
the DSS reversed itself and in doing so, embarrassed the Nigerian government
and exposed it to ridicule.
There have been conflicting versions of what exactly
transpired, but whatever that was, it is Omoyele Sowore and his counsel who are
controlling the narrative. Nobody believes the DSS! An intelligence agency
should never lose the trust and confidence of the people. It must not become
partisan. In 2018, a team of DSS officers attacked the National Assembly. In
2019, the same DSS took over the premises of a Federal High Court and abducted
a man standing trial. Nigerians are convinced that the DSS is pursuing a
political agenda. No amount of press statements can correct that impression at
this point. The Presidency's statement "in support of the DSS" is also absurd
because it puts President Buhari on the spot. No state official should ever use
the President as "a scapegoat." Others
should take the bullets for him. The public has every right to accuse the
President because he is the Head of Government and Head of Sate but to tell the
public that an agency of the Executive arm of government can do as it wishes
because it has a constitutional mandate and that the President should not be
blamed is an endorsement of fascism.
The Presidency is urged to take notice of the local
and international reactions to the Sowore saga and retrace its steps. Release Sowore
and Bakare, investigate and sanction rogue elements in the DSS, and design a
strategy to change the narrative. Many revolutionaries often fail by
overstretching their luck and by over-estimating their own preparedness. Sowore
in the course of his present travails should also watch his back. His wife,
mother and children want him back alive, and they have the backing of the
United States and the Nigerian civil society. He too should learn to live and fight another
day: (because) "... he who is in battle slain can never rise to fight again" (Oliver Goldsmith).
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