Human rights activist and former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, has challenged the long-held narrative that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was a prominent pro-democracy activist during Nigeria’s military era.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Rubbin’ Minds on Sunday, Sowore argued that Tinubu’s political involvement and exile do not equate to genuine activism, which he described as visible, high-risk resistance to authoritarian rule.
“Your president was never an activist,” Sowore declared. “Participating in partisan politics and being left out of military arrangements is not activism.”
Sowore contrasted Tinubu’s record with his own early involvement in student-led protests, emphasizing that true activists were those who faced arrests, led demonstrations, and put their lives on the line.
He claimed Tinubu fled Nigeria during the military crackdown and only resurfaced after democracy was restored in 1999.
“People like Tinubu who said, ‘Oh they want to come and bomb my house,’ and then left the country — we didn’t see them again until 1999. They’re not people you should call activists.”
The Sahara Reporters founder also criticized what he described as opportunism that followed the June 12, 1993, election crisis, alleging that many individuals who claim to be heroes of democracy never actually took part in the struggle.
Sowore further accused Tinubu and members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of maintaining ties with former military rulers such as Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar — figures many activists blame for Nigeria’s political repression in the 1990s.
“They are partners in the business of creating the impression that they fought for Nigeria,” he said.
Sowore concluded by calling for a clear categorization of Nigeria’s democratic fighters to differentiate “who is real and who is not.”