{"id":164188,"date":"2025-05-25T16:13:32","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T15:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/nigerians-made-grave-mistake-voting-him-sowore"},"modified":"2025-05-25T17:23:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T16:23:12","slug":"nigerians-made-grave-mistake-voting-him-sowore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerians-made-grave-mistake-voting-him-sowore","title":{"rendered":"Nigerians made grave mistake voting him \u2013 Sowore"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Ahead of Democracy Day, human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, has slammed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu\u2019s administration, stating that Nigerians made a \u201cgrave mistake\u201d voting him in.<\/p>\n<p>In an exclusive interview with Vanguard, Omoyele Sowore stated that Tinubu\u2019s leadership has worsened Nigeria\u2019s decline, exceeding even the widely criticised tenure of former President Muhammadu Buhari.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy position on this government is not a thought, it\u2019s a clear stance I\u2019ve held long before the 2023 elections. Nigerians made a grave mistake voting Bola Tinubu into office,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said it before, and I\u2019ll say it again: when Tinubu is done with this country, Nigerians will be begging to return to Buhari\u2019s era. He has done irreparable damage economically, socially, politically,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has crippled institutions, education, and democracy. Buhari killed Nigeria in eight years; Tinubu came, in two years he is burying it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sowore claimed that president Tinubu\u2019s policies have worsened poverty, weakened institutions, and undermined democratic values.<\/p>\n<p>He expressed dismay that Nigeria is at its brink of total collapse, with citizens losing trust in the electoral system and democracy itself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat Nigerians are whispering dangerously is that they no longer believe in democracy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe promises of democracy, free speech, credible elections, freedom to choose have been destroyed,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday, people celebrate military dictators just to express their frustration. But to be clear, I don\u2019t support military rules. What we have now is a shambolic democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sowore, who has contested presidential elections and led protests against poor governance, was clear and firm in his criticism against the current electoral system.<\/p>\n<p>He said he would continue to resist a proposed law by the House of Representatives to make voting compulsory, describing it as an attempt to manufacture legitimacy through coercion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you have to use threats to force people to vote, then democracy is dead. Democracy is about choice. You cannot force people to participate in a system they no longer believe in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat proposal is not about boosting participation, it\u2019s about forced legitimacy. They\u2019re desperate because voters turnout is low, so they want to fabricate numbers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose behind these law should know I will oppose them every step of the way.\u201dhe argued<\/p>\n<p>When questioned about a potential 2027 run, Sowore said he does not believe in the current electoral system, but he will continue \u201crunning\u201d through activism, protests and advocacy,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut if you\u2019re asking about elections, I don\u2019t believe in the current ballot system. The 2027 results are already written,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only thing that can change Nigeria is rebellion against the system, against another sham election, not against democracy, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sowore rejected potential alliances with the PDP Atiku Abubakar and LP Peter obi candidates, believing that systemic change is needed, not just a change in leadership.<\/p>\n<p>He claimed that the current opposition lacks bite due to a crisis of ideology and conviction, even as many believe the nation\u2019s opposition movement has been subdued since the 2023 polls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s because what you call opposition isn\u2019t opposition. Most of them are former APC or PDP members. They share the same ideology or lack of one. Real opposition means clear ideological difference. What we have are political mercenaries looking for the best-paying camp,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost of these defections are transactional. They\u2019re not about values or service. If you dig deeper, you\u2019ll realise they\u2019re just fighting over how to share the loot, not about how to serve the people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Ahead of Democracy Day, human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, has slammed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu\u2019s administration, stating that Nigerians made a \u201cgrave mistake\u201d voting him in. In an exclusive interview with Vanguard, Omoyele Sowore stated that Tinubu\u2019s leadership has worsened Nigeria\u2019s decline, exceeding even the widely criticised tenure of former President Muhammadu [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":164187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,29,28,14,2660],"tags":[254,674,945],"class_list":["post-164188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-to-homepage","tag-nigeria","tag-sowore","tag-tinubu"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Nigerians made grave mistake voting him \u2013 Sowore - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ahead of Democracy Day, human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, has slammed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu\u2019s administration, ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerians-made-grave-mistake-voting-him-sowore\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nigerians made grave mistake voting him \u2013 Sowore\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ahead of Democracy Day, human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, has slammed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu\u2019s administration, ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerians-made-grave-mistake-voting-him-sowore\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-25T15:13:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-25T16:23:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/sm_1748177629.221988.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerians-made-grave-mistake-voting-him-sowore#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerians-made-grave-mistake-voting-him-sowore\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Nigerians made grave mistake voting him \u2013 Sowore\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-25T15:13:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-25T16:23:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerians-made-grave-mistake-voting-him-sowore\"},\"wordCount\":603,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerians-made-grave-mistake-voting-him-sowore#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/05\/sm_1748177629.221988.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\",\"Sowore\",\"Tinubu\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"Policy\",\"to-homepage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerians-made-grave-mistake-voting-him-sowore#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerians-made-grave-mistake-voting-him-sowore\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nigerians-made-grave-mistake-voting-him-sowore\",\"name\":\"Nigerians made grave mistake voting him \u2013 Sowore - 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