‘Tinubu Dropped Charges Against Sowore To Reduce Increased Decibel For Revolution’ – AAC Spokesman

In the aftermath of the recent decision by the Bola Tinubu-led government to drop treason charges against Omoyele Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 elections, Naija News interviewed Femi Adeyeye, the National Publicity Secretary of AAC.

Adeyeye sheds light on the circumstances surrounding the release of Sowore and addresses the party’s stance on revolution amidst the country’s economic challenges.

Omoyele Sowore, detained in 2019 and charged with treason for organizing the ‘Revolution Now’ protest against the previous administration, had faced numerous challenges in court and DSS custody.

However, the recent decision by the Tinubu-led government saw the dropping of charges against the activist.

Below are excerpts from Naija News interview with the AAC national publicity secretary

What effort did the party put into ensuring that the treason charges brought by the Federal Government against your presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore was dropped?

Response: “We have always clamored for revolution and we made it very clear that the rights for Nigerians to express themselves whenever they are displeased that right is inalienable it cannot be taken away by anybody it is our human right that is what this was hinged on.

“There was no compromise anywhere, there was no discussion with anybody anywhere, they got tired of wasting the people’s resources, and that was why they dropped the case.

“They got tired of our clamour that was so definite because if you look at it very well, the number of people in 2019 who were clamouring for revolution is lesser than what we have today.

“Every corner in Nigeria today people are clamouring for revolution and so in their wisdom they feel maybe ‘if we drop the case against this pointer man or the vanguard of this whole struggle maybe it is going to reduce the whole decibel of the revolution sound that is coming to us’ i think that is what they did because they also lost.

“Totally they lost in court for five good years they’ve not been able to prosecute the case they’ve just been doing conviction without trial, which is hold the man down don’t let him travel to see his family, and even during that time, he was attacked several times in court, escaped different death attempts, his younger brother was also assassinated under very shady conditions, till today no report of the investigation has been received by either the party or the family themselves, so it goes on to tell you that they tried everything possible but we are very resolved, we are very resolute in this cause to make sure that Nigeria becomes a free country free from both local and international oppressors.”

How do you think we can navigate the current economic hardship currently bedevilling the nation?

Response: “We go into elections to proffer our solutions to the problems and if you take a sneak peak into the People manifesto, everything that we said, everything that we said we were going to do to change the country, to put it on a radical pedestal is comprehensively detailed in that manifesto.

“Let me just hinge on two of them that are causing the breakdown in our macroeconomic policies. Number one is the subsidy removal, we said we were the only party that campaigned far and wide that we were not going to remove subsidy because that is the littlest of things that Nigerians enjoy as citizens. What we said was that we were going to fight corruption within that subsidy regime because subsidy in the first place did not exist so how do you remove something that does not exist.

“And that is what the government is now doing. Their major shout is now that we have not even removed subsidy, so if we remove subsidy, you’ll be buying dollars as high as ₦1,000 so it is because we are still paying subsidy despite saying you have removed it so it shows a lot of confusion, trial and error Neo-liberal economics that these guys are pushing which are also orchestrated by the World Bank and IMF.

“So we said we were not going to remove subsidy because the people who enjoyed subsidy are the small businesses.”

Do you think Nigerians will be able to wait for another four years with the current economic hardship that have plagued the nation?

Response: “The answer to that is no, nobody should wait till any four years, that is hwy we are different, our party is a party that has a movement wing and what we do is that we do not wait till every election cycle before we stand by the people and i’m not talking about releasing statement alone, We release statements we also put our feet on the ground, protest, rallies, symposias just to open the mind of our people to liberation and if you can be free today why wait till four years, so the four years ritual of selection because if actually there were elections in this country there were a lot of things that will not be happening, legally, illegally, constitutionally and UN-constitutionally so what we do every four years is selection among the ruling class and we’ve always clamoured that this is not going to be the way out, these people cannot give you what is going to end them, let me repeat that the ruling class are not going to give you an election that will end them, they have manipulated the whole system so they would not give you, it is like creating their own poison.

“That is what we were saying when people were saying oh BVAS is going to be the game changer, they’ve told us these things before they told you that card reader in 2011 would change the game of elections in Nigeria, they will always feed you with something so in 2023 too oh BVAS, BVAS is number one can we now see what BVAS has done it is not a four-year thing, liberation is what you engage.

“I want to state clearly now that it is not about voting out the current government, it is about kicking out the current government and protests is also a veritable tool to change government anywhere in the world.”

What is the way forward?

Response: “The way forward is we never went on any break, we’re definitely on the way what we are going to do in the coming days is to heighten and mobilise our people; as you can see in different states, our comrades are already leading mass revolt from Ibadan to Lagos and many cities will join in the coming days.”