INTERVIEW: Why I Want To Be Nigeria’s President – Sowore, SaharaReporters Publisher
In this exclusive interview with POSTERITY MEDIA, Omoyele Sowore, Sahara Reporters Publisher, speaks on his Presidential ambition, his activism and contributions to Nigeria’s democracy, his scandals and why he should be voted as Nigeria’s President in the 2019 elections. POSTERITY MEDIA: You’ve built Sahara Reporters into a respected online media platform within and outside Nigeria. Why do you want to leave it to go into the difficult terrain of politics to contest for the Presidency in 2019?
In this exclusive interview with POSTERITY MEDIA, Omoyele Sowore, Sahara Reporters Publisher, speaks on his Presidential ambition, his activism and contributions to Nigeria’s democracy, his scandals and why he should be voted as Nigeria’s President in the 2019 elections.
POSTERITY MEDIA: You’ve built Sahara Reporters into a respected online media platform within and outside Nigeria. Why do you want to leave it to go into the difficult terrain of politics to contest for the Presidency in 2019?
SOWORE: When I established Sahara Reporters in 2006, I had three goals in mind. The first was to provide a platform that would help to safeguard and nurture Nigeria’s democracy. The second was to provide a platform through which the Nigerian people could hold their leaders accountable, and the third was to provide a platform that would allow every Nigerian citizen to have a voice as citizen activists and citizen journalists.
With the support of the Nigerian people and our global base of supporters, we have been able to deliver on those goals.
We helped ensure that Obasanjo’s third term was scuttled. Sahara Reporters was instrumental in ensuring that we had a constitutional transfer of power to Goodluck Jonathan when Yar’adua died. And in 2015, our pioneering efforts at the real-time reporting of electoral results helped to ensure the sanctity of the electoral process, leading to the defeat of an incumbent party.
We’ve done this not just in Nigeria – but across the African continent in nations like Zimbabwe and Gambia.
While we have seen gains in the democratic process, Nigeria has remained stagnated. Corruption is still rife. Unemployment is at the highest levels ever recorded. The economy is in shambles. Security is worsening – just a few weeks ago, Boko Haram kidnapped over 100 of our sisters and daughters in Dapchi. Herdsmen and Farmer conflicts are intensifying.
It is clear to me that the challenge Nigeria now faces, and in truth has suffered for some time – is a crisis in leadership. We lack leaders with the political will to do what is right. We have leaders that are beholden to the interests that sponsor their elections. We have leaders that bend the knee at the altar of corruption.
POSTERITY MEDIA: Aside Sahara Reporters, what else do you consider as part of your life’s major achievements so far?
SOWORE: I am apparently proud of the fact that starting with nothing but a clear vision, I have been able to grow Sahara Reporters into a globally-acclaimed brand that has pioneered a unique style of citizen journalism.
However, my last 12 years as the Founder and CEO is merely the latest chapter in a journey down the challenging and difficult path of activism that began almost 30 years ago at the University of Lagos.
I have been an integral part of every major struggle for the advancement of the Nigerian people. Whether this was the fight against Babangida’s structural adjustment program or the principled fight against military dictatorship.
As a Students’ Union President at the University of Lagos from 1992-1994, I was one of the leading personalities in the national student and youth movement against military rule. Fate placed me in the role of the leader of what was then perhaps the most nationally-prominent student movement in Nigeria. This period also happened to overlap with the annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections. With the ranks of the labor and civil rights groups decimated through arrest, detention, and assassinations of prominent leaders, most of the surviving leaders retreated into exile, and the task of fighting the Babangida – Abacha junta fell to Nigeria’s students and youth.
SOWORE: When I established Sahara Reporters in 2006, I had three goals in mind. The first was to provide a platform that would help to safeguard and nurture Nigeria’s democracy. The second was to provide a platform through which the Nigerian people could hold their leaders accountable, and the third was to provide a platform that would allow every Nigerian citizen to have a voice as citizen activists and citizen journalists.
We helped ensure that Obasanjo’s third term was scuttled. Sahara Reporters was instrumental in ensuring that we had a constitutional transfer of power to Goodluck Jonathan when Yar’adua died. And in 2015, our pioneering efforts at the real-time reporting of electoral results helped to ensure the sanctity of the electoral process, leading to the defeat of an incumbent party.
We’ve done this not just in Nigeria – but across the African continent in nations like Zimbabwe and Gambia.
While we have seen gains in the democratic process, Nigeria has remained stagnated. Corruption is still rife. Unemployment is at the highest levels ever recorded. The economy is in shambles. Security is worsening – just a few weeks ago, Boko Haram kidnapped over 100 of our sisters and daughters in Dapchi. Herdsmen and Farmer conflicts are intensifying.
It is clear to me that the challenge Nigeria now faces, and in truth has suffered for some time – is a crisis in leadership. We lack leaders with the political will to do what is right. We have leaders that are beholden to the interests that sponsor their elections. We have leaders that bend the knee at the altar of corruption.
It is to these more significant issues that I have chosen to focus my attention. Good leadership requires training and empowering others to carry on when you are not present. Sahara Reporters will soldier on when I become President – and I can assure you that the platform will hold my feet to the fire as well.
SOWORE: I am apparently proud of the fact that starting with nothing but a clear vision, I have been able to grow Sahara Reporters into a globally-acclaimed brand that has pioneered a unique style of citizen journalism.
However, my last 12 years as the Founder and CEO is merely the latest chapter in a journey down the challenging and difficult path of activism that began almost 30 years ago at the University of Lagos.
As a Students’ Union President at the University of Lagos from 1992-1994, I was one of the leading personalities in the national student and youth movement against military rule. Fate placed me in the role of the leader of what was then perhaps the most nationally-prominent student movement in Nigeria. This period also happened to overlap with the annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections. With the ranks of the labor and civil rights groups decimated through arrest, detention, and assassinations of prominent leaders, most of the surviving leaders retreated into exile, and the task of fighting the Babangida – Abacha junta fell to Nigeria’s students and youth.
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