By Ishaya Ibrahim
Omoyele Sowore is well known as publisher of the anti-corruption media watchdog, Sahara Reporters. The hawkish online news website is the dread of Nigeria’s political and business elites. Though they hate the website, they make up a large number of its followers on twitter, albeit to get a heads up on any damaging story on them.
On both sides of Nigeria’s political divide, Sahara Reporters has taken no prisoner, exposing corruption and other financial malfeasance perpetrated by senior government and top private sector officials.
Sowore, the brain behind the platform, wants to become Nigeria’s president. He says his mission is to disrupt the current political arrangement that allows a few members of a corrupt class to control the levers of power.
In addition, he would spearhead a policy to ban convicted politicians for life from holding public office and strip them of any national honours.
His candidature has naturally elicited mixed reactions, partly because of his weird journalism tactic which does not recognise fairness and objectivity, and his gangster approach to activism. He once disrupted a town hall meeting because, according to him, the convener, former minister of state for foreign affairs, Viola Onwuliri, came to the venue one-and-half hours late.
No matter how one views the man, Sowore is a phenomenon. He describes himself as a citizen journalist, therefore not bound by conventional principles of fair hearing, which mainstream journalists hold dear.
Born on February 16, 1971, Sowore studied Geography and Town Planning at the University of Lagos and holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Columbia University, New York, USA.
From a polygamous family of 16 siblings, he joined activism at his undergraduate days in the University of Lagos. He was elected president of the Students Union Government (SUG) between 1992-1994, at the time activists were hounded by the military government of Sani Abacha.
In 1993, he led 2,000 students to protest against the government’s annulment of the June 12 election, during which he was arrested, interrogated and beaten up.
He founded Sahara Reporters in 2005, a platform that thrives on grants from international donor agencies, largely because of the medium’s stance against corruption.
However, critics say Sowore is exploiting the negative narrative of Nigeria’s corrupt profile in order to sustain the funding for his Sahara Reporters, by publishing anything negative, whether verified or unverified, once the allegation is a financial sleaze against Nigerian government officials.
On the flip side, championing anti-corruption is not only his day’s job. Sowore is a lecturer who teaches Modern African History at the City University of New York, and Post-Colonial African History at the School of Art, New York.
In the coming months, how far can Sowore go will be the interest of many – both foes and friends?