By Paul Ojenagbon
TUE, AUGUST 28 2018-theG&BJournal-The media especially the social segment has been awash recently with the return to the country of a presidential aspirant, former students’ leader, Omoyele Sowore. It would have gone unnoticed like most events of the day but for the tumultuous crowd that came out to welcome him and the traffic snag that it generated within the precincts of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport and the interconnecting roads.
Like hurricane, it has been mammoth crowds that follow his entourage wherever he goes him since his emergence on the political scene three months ago scene while the fully packed town hall meetings at various parts of the country that followed the Airport incident expresses the real intent of a determined shot at the nation’s highest seat of power. This is remarkable for an aspirant who has not announced an affiliation with any existing political party but currently running independently and thus does not enjoy the benefits of any party structures as it should be.
For those who could spare a little time for students’ union politics in the universities in the late eighties and early nineties, the name would need little or no introduction. Sowore is the brave young man who held the reins of Students’ Union government as the president of the University of Lagos Chapter and had ceaseless battles with the university authorities, student cultists and the then military government of General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. Significantly, because of its several anti-people policies, the IBB administration experienced several students’ riots that often spiralled out of the campuses onto the adjoining streets and areas to mobilize the masses against the government. It could be argued from a generational perspective that students’ unionism reached the peak of radicalism during this period; it was incessant just as it was profound on scale.
It would appear rather simple now to conceptualize for the uninitiated but to take on a brutish military Gestapo at that time required the indomitable courage of the steel-hearted, very few would attempt it because of the dire consequences. Indeed, for the writer, at the time he was to start academic activities at Unilag in the mid eighties, a close cousin who had taken much liking to the Late Tai Solarin whose column he followed regularly in one of the newspapers, told me he wanted me to be very controversial and radical. I replied that I could only take his advice if he were a lawyer and would be there to bail me out each time I got into trouble with the authorities. But I chose to stay out of trouble and out of students’ union activities (except to pay the mandatory levies) knowing that I would be on my own if I joined in the fray. Therefore, there is much to admire in a student union leader of that era because they put their lives on the firing line.
Sowore did not only confront the establishment but equally endangered his life in the even more dangerous battles with cult groups when cultists ruled the universities and their overbearing activities riled the minds. The young man suffered untold hardship by way of various arrests and detentions, ceaseless threats to his life (there is an account that he was forcefully injected with poison by cultists) and rustication. That he survived all these difficulties showed an indefatigable spirit to overcome all odds and that God had other plans for him in the future.
Sowore has displayed singular bravery once again by aspiring for the top most position of presidency, not even governor of his state, nor senator of his senatorial district, House of Representatives Member nor local government chairman for that matter. As an online critic put it, it shows that he is not afraid to thread where angels dread. His take it back message is very apt for the times and conforms to the vision and philosophy of his campaign. The fearless activist has taken his message to far and beyond to those in the Diaspora notably Canada, US, UK and others, and back home in Nigeria, he has visited several cities and met with relevant prominent personalities to drum up support because he believes in consultations. At these fora, he discussed the prevailing problems of Nigeria, challenges ordinary Nigerians face and constantly reassures them that their days of facing these problems were numbered. His followership cuts across ethnic lines and certainly beyond his Yoruba tribe. The barrage of reactions to online publications indicates there are as many who believe in his vision just as those who think that he is a pretender which is normal.
Aside his radical pedigree, he is well organized, focused and smart with a clear out strategy on how he hoped to wrest the presidency from the hands of “looters”. His on-line publication, Sahara Reporters has been of immense benefit in unravelling shady deals involving power brokers and giving a bite to the voice for justice.
For now, Sowore has not announced his political platform and the issue of independent candidacy is not yet clearly defined in the country’s constitution nor tested in practice. He certainly needs a good platform to actualize his vision. It will get clearer in the days ahead.
Remarkably, Sowore is not the only aspirant of youthful age or disposition who is gunning for the nation’s number one seat. There are other contenders such as the sweet talking motivational speaker, Fela Durotoye, 46, who has managed to stir some serious online debate on the chances of a new comer. Former Central Bank Deputy Governor, political economist and lawyer by training, Kingsley Moghalu is another formidable ‘young’ contender. Former Cross River governor (1999-2007), Donald Duke,56,has since thrown his urbanely styled hat into the ring with the now famous January statement,” It is high time Nigerians begun to project people with technical know-how to take the country to the promised land”. Former Kano State governor Ibrahim Hassan Daukwambo has also made it clear he was throwing his red cap into the presidential ring one more time. Current Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose,57, self-styled ‘voice of the nation’s main opposition party, PDP’ whose term runs out in a couple of months, in no particular order, brings up the rear of these main youthful gladiators in addition to several ‘oldies’ all gearing up to square it out in the ring called 2019 Election. They have declared they want to be president of Nigeria and have told anyone who cared to listen that Muhammadu Buhari’s time in Aso Rock as president is nearing its end. Sowore and the other new comers like Durtoye and Moghalu in particular would be interesting to watch in the days ahead.
Although largely in the garbs of military government, the youthful segment of the population fair shots at the topmost position of leadership in the country. Most heads of state by their official age were less than or barely 40years old when they mounted the saddle of power and it is not much different at the lower rungs of the military top brass. However, with the advent of democracy, the “oldies” have taken over control and not in any hurry to quit the scene for the younger generation. It was not always so though because the likes of Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Anthony Enahoro and others had an early start as youngsters at leadership; some of them while they were yet students, enlisted in the country’s agitation for independence and it is the same experience for most of Africa.
But we live in a world of paradoxes: women want a female president yet when they have the chance to elect one, they would ignore her and choose the male candidate instead. The youths who recently got a boost with the signing into law of the not too young to run bill by President Buhari have long sought for a president who is youthful and just one of them. Significantly, the population of youths in Nigeria makes up a large proportion of the voting population. Will they embrace the chance in 2019 or blow it? But whether Sowore or any of the young ones becomes the president in 2019 or not, the political landscape would no longer be the same, it certainly would have been redefined. This is so because Nigeria cannot be isolated from the political gale that is blowing across certain parts of the world where the older ones are giving way to the younger, not for too long.
Paul Ojenagbon is Estate Surveyor & Valuer, lives in Lagos|Email: pauloje2000@yahoo.com
