Omoyele Sowore, human rights activist and one of the youths pictured with the late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola during the June 12, 1993 struggle, believes that beyond the conferment of national honours on June 12 heroes, a comprehensive inquiry should be established to determine the victims of the struggle and compensate them appropriately.
Enjoy the excerpts!
What are your thoughts on what some people have described as the shrinking space for civil dialogue?
It’s unbelievable that this is happening with our frenemies who came on the back of fighting for human rights and pro-democracy. People who had engaged in protests several times, and people who had done things that could be described as treasonous.
They’re now using the same government under a democratic era to victimise citizens. What they’re doing is just unspeakable, horrible, and unconscionable. I don’t think they have a conscience.
Before coming here, I was in court with some of the young people arrested in August of 2024 for participating in the #EndBadGovernance protest. They are still on trial for treason.
What happened on June 12, 1993? I know that you were one of the youth leaders in the country at that time and had interactions even with the acclaimed winner of the election, the late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, during the struggle. So, I felt President Bola Tinubu should have honoured you among the June 12 heroes.
It will be injurious to my character to accept honour from people I consider to be dishonourable.
What is the best way to recognise the heroes of June 12?
I don’t think it should just be about recognising the heroes of June 12; I think June 12 needs a comprehensive forensic investigation to determine certain things. These kinds of events don’t happen in any country more than once for them to shut it down, fix it before they even move on.
June 12 was a despicable act of injustice done against the Nigerian democratic progress at that point. People were killed, people were arrested unjustly, businesses were destroyed, the march of the country towards economic progress was interrupted, and money was stolen. So, there should have been a panel set up to look at what happened on June 12.
Different from the Oputa Panel?
No, the Oputa panel was a general panel that looked at military abuses; it didn’t discuss many things. I’m talking about something that is also forensic – it’s not something you just dismiss. I’m not saying a public hearing alone. Of course, there should be a portion of it, but an inquiry panel to look at how many people died. Who killed them? What were the circumstances? Who won the election? I don’t know if they’ve declared Abiola president yet, but he should be officially declared president.
But he’s dead.
Well, it doesn’t matter because the families of dead presidents are also entitled to certain recognitions. Let his family also enjoy that. All these should be discussed with the students who were expelled from the university. These should be documented by the Nigerian state and then put in one place.
June 12 should be taught as a course from primary school to secondary school. It’s just like going to South Africa and saying that you don’t know anything about apartheid. Or that we shouldn’t talk about apartheid. They’re still investigating apartheid till tomorrow. The Jews are still investigating what Hitler did to them in Germany, so why should something of that magnitude just be glossed over?
That is why the likes of Babangida are writing books, and it’s very interesting. But of note, let us have closure for those who were killed and who disappeared mysteriously. But we can’t have closure without an inquiry and compensation people. That’s the point I’m making, and that will be my position on June 12.
I know of a guy whose leg was cut off on June 12. If he’s still alive, there should be a fund set aside to compensate everybody who lost something, because you can’t give everybody the national award. It’s part of the reasons I can never accept the national award. Every Tom, Dick and Harry gets a national award. I can’t even associate myself with it.
To the Benue killings, the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has announced 26 suspects. Many people say that it is interesting that he waited for President Bola Tinubu to instruct him to do his job before he made the arrest.
What we must first investigate whenever police arrest people is to find out whether those people are participants in the crime. I’m close to how the police work; they can arrest people. They can go into the cell and bring people who have been detained earlier and present them as the killers because they know that at this point, they have to present some set of persons responsible for the killings in Benue.
I’m yet to find out on my own that these are the people but if it is true that these people are arrested, the next stage is diligent prosecution and not just prosecution to find out where they get weapons from and who are behind them because you don’t just kill 200 people without some kind of backing.
