In 2018, Omoyele Sowore said he got into politics to “disrupt” the Nigerian political landscape like he did the media landscape. Many people thought he was being quixotic and self-aggrandising when he said that.
But he is turning out to be accurate. Since 1999, no lone individual has disrupted Nigeria’s political space with as much consequence as he has done.
In my interview with the Interview Magazine before he was rearrested in the court by Nigeria’s lawless Department of State Services, I nominated Sowore as my man of the year.
I said, “He forwent his comfort to confront Buhari’s monster of fascistic executive overreach and is living, at least for now, to tell the story.
“He refused to give in when several interest groups prevailed upon him to compromise. He stuck to his guns, and he has now been released from illegal confinement.
“In this season of mass authoritarian hypnotism in Nigeria, that’s worthy of admiration and praise.”
Because of Sowore, Sambo Dasuki, who had been in jail since 2015 – in spite of several court orders asking that he be released on bail – is now out of illegal detention. Other unjustly detained people such as Ibrahim El-Zakzaky may be next.
Because of Sowore, United States senators wrote a strongly worded letter to Nigeria. Lickspittle Femi Adesina, who said the US wasn’t the world’s police and should mind its business didn’t get the memo that when American sneezes, his puppeteers in Aso Rock quake in their boots.
Because of Sowore, the PUNCH wrote a trenchant editorial that rattled the addled little brains of the fascists in Aso Rock and their media enablers.
Because of Sowore, our Attorney-General of the Federation suddenly became sober enough to eat his words and do the right thing. Recall that on December 17, Malami had said he couldn’t ask the DSS to release Sowore.
That, right there, my friends, is a disrupter.
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