First, they arrived in the small hours and, proceeding as if Omoyele Sowore owned a small army of his own, seized the political activist from his hotel room.
Then, after confirming to the world they indeed had him, they kept him without filing any charges beyond the time-frame allowed by law.
Then they asked a court for 90 days to investigate the very “terrorism” charges for which they said they had picked him up in the first place.
In a decision that was far more political than legal, the judge fed Sowore to them for 45 days, specifying that should they wish to keep him beyond that, they should come and get it.
Somewhere in the Kingdom of Paranoia, some people commenced spending federal funds in drinking, dining and dancing, in a revelry of victory.
That is because they understand only the temptations of power but little of history or strategy. In other words, they failed to see that to the revolutionaries have gone the triumph of the early rounds of battle.
First, this is not about Sowore: it is about every Nigerian who has been compromised and devalued by the state since October 1, 1960. When the revolutionaries talk about revolution, they do not mean a government, any government, but the totality of that devaluation and generation.
Why a “revolution,” and not just a protest? The truth is that there is a time for protests, and we have already had rites of passage such as the Occupy Nigeria event of January 2012 against the Goodluck Jonathan government, which was supported by all the political groupings that later came together as the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Those protests were important, but while limited in scope, they were profitable in the long run to the APC, which is now fundamentally worse than its predecessors. As events have unfolded, it is clear that the Muhammadu Buhari government was Nigeria’s last chance at any semblance of progress by instalments, a hope it has betrayed and vacated.
That is why a lot of Nigerians, asking “What next?” have reached the conclusion that only a revolution, as a popular rejection of the retrogression and decay—but not the kind you can put on the calendar—is inevitable. Three times in this column since October 2009, I have urged Nigerians to take the streets.
The arrest of Sowore was a mistake by the government and a masterstroke for the “revolutionaries.” To begin with, it provides the idea with a face. A revolution does not require a persistent soundtrack or voice as much as it needs a symbol. Such an identifiable symbol speaks louder than words, and the Buhari government has enacted one in Sowore.
Next, by identifying Sowore as an opponent, the Buhari government ingests a political poison because he was one of those elements that made the Buhari breakthrough possible in 2015. Through SaharaReporters in the eight years between 2007 and 2015—and in spite of the website’s excesses—Sowore made possible the kind of scorched-earth reporting and commentary that yielded Buhari’s electorate.
In the first part of that period, the mainstream media didn’t even accept SaharaReporters or even refer to it by name. The concept of “Citizen Reporting” was anathema to it. But SaharaReporters fearlessly published major stories of malfeasance that the media, particularly its compromised components, would not touch.
By 2012, however, SaharaReporters had become compulsory reading for top government officials, one of whom confessed to me he did nothing on any day until he had ensured that SaharaReporters didn’t have him in a chokehold. The website began to enjoy international success, which always means greater domestic attention, and the level of fearlessness in reporting of the local media rose significantly.
That favoured the opposition and enabled the coming-to-power of Buhari. In other words, the Buhari phenomenon owes its essence to SaharaReporters and Sowore. That is a debt that became lodged in its throat as Buhari flopped in office. I object to coups and violent changes of government, but fully support the right of the people to scream in the streets in search of justice.
Sowore, like many others, ran for the presidency this year—out of frustration I imagine—and predictably, lost. His revolution revelation followed, reflecting that Buhari’s strongest cheerleaders have become his fiercest rejectors. If he willingly accepted their free support, he should accept their free rejection.
I hear people describe Sowore in unflattering terms, as if only saints lead revolutions, protests, military coups, political parties or even governments.
And no, I do not know everywhere Sowore has been. In principle, whoever knows any whorehouses he owns, any loot he has cornered or any sewers in which he has bathed should freely demonstrate them: a strategy I believe he would welcome.
But when he speaks of a revolution, he speaks for many Nigerians who feel their country has no future unless she purges herself or is purged. That is why I am convinced that he is currently ahead of the reactionary elements, and why the revolutionaries have won the first few rounds.
Here is how: First, and with the help of the Buhari government, they have now firmly planted the subject of revolutionin Nigeria, with the Buhari government eagerly watering it. The more vicious the government gets—as opposed to being more effective in governance—the stronger that plant will flourish.
Second, by arresting Sowore, the powers-that-be played further into the hands of the revolutionaries, helping to spread the word internationally. The European Union and several human rights organisations made statements last week, reported by the biggest news agencies.
Among others, the Sowore story will continue to underline the failures of Buhari as a leader, including his contempt for the rule of law and human rights, and how his work is so markedly different from his word. And Nigerians continue to point at the official ineptitude, election-rigging and corruption double-face that characterises the current government.
Of his #RevolutionNow, Sowore is on record as denouncing violence, contrary to the government’s propaganda. “We don’t want war,” he said last month. “We want a very clean, quick, succinct revolutionary process.”
It is a shame that in 2019, having allegedly won a second term, the Buhari government is looking for enemies and critics, instead of into a mirror.
And now, they are celebrating because they think they have seized a troublemaker. They do not know it, but what they have achieved is to invite the cat among the pigeons. The government acts like a man who, affirming that cancer is dangerous out there, chooses to swallow it.
The government wants to fight outrage by suppressing it? Congratulations are in order. But that is a lot of outrage, outside the fortified gates of Aso Rock, to suppress.
The government should build more prisons and buy more bullets, given that its leading lights think so hopelessly of their own schools, hospitals and roads they send their families abroad.
They want to suppress the very outrage they have spurned, but must remember: in a real revolution you receive no date on the calendar, and there will be nowhere to run.
The formula for peace remains unchanged: serve! Serve your people, not yourselves.
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