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He has steadily built up a reputation for himself as the scourge of Nigerian politicians, a one-man crusader and an enemy of corruption. Call him a rebel with a cause and you won't be far wrong.
He has steadily built up a reputation for himself as the scourge of Nigerian politicians, a one-man crusader and an enemy of corruption. Call him a rebel with a cause and you won't be far wrong. He and his former partner (Jonathan Elendu) of elendureports.com took Nigeria by storm in 2005 and gave the phrase investigative reporting a whole new meaning; they got tongues wagging, and many politicians diving for cover. But just when Nigerians were beginning to get used to their weekly firebrand stories and investigative reports, Omoyele Sowore, former University of Lagos Students Union President, announced that he was disengaging from elendureports.com, thus fuelling speculations of a bust-up with Jonathan Elendu. In this excerpts from the interview conducted by Uche Nworah, Sowore speaks on his life, his mission and why he left elendureports.com
Tell us a little about yourself?
I was born in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria in a small village called 'Kiribo" in Ese-Odo local government area of Ondo State. I come from a small Yoruba -speaking tribe known as 'Ijaw-Apoi" (Ijaw-Apoi- because the Ijaws claim their territory or nation starts from there!). My father was a local teacher and my mum a full-time, never- retiring housewife. I come from a polygamous family, I have lots of brothers and sisters, 16 of us; - don't ask me if I remember all their names!
What about your educational background
I studied Geography and Planning at the University of Lagos from 1989 to 1995 (for six years), after being expelled twice for political reasons and because of my student activism. I did my youth service in Yola, Adamawa State from 1995-1996; I was never given a discharge certificate till date for whatever reasons. I also have a Masters degree in Public Administration from Columbia University in New York, I graduated in May 2003.
Briefly tell us about your professional background (working life) both in Nigeria and abroad
Until I left Nigeria in 1999, I worked as a pro-democracy activist. I didn't have a job really; I only had a career as a civil rights activist of a sort, a very dangerous career especially in our part of the world... And with that career you can't get a day job, there were no paid jobs anyway! I currently work with the Catholic Charities in the New York tri-state area, that's my job at the moment, my career remains the same.
People have been wondering what drives and motivates you, being that journalism and writing in the Nigerian context does not fully pay the bills, who funds your various story researches which usually transcend many continents?
Like I said earlier, I have a day job and my Internet reports are funded from my private funds, but some of the reports are also made possible by the research efforts of some patriotic Nigerians who reach out to us because of the seriousness with which we took the reports. I have a network of these great guys all over the world that I tap into from time to time. So many of the tools we use for our investigations are basically somehow available and when we need to go to the higher levels we contact these 'Good Samaritans' who in turn deplore their resources to help make things happen, but let me be clear on this, I have never received any funding from any source for my work.
For so long, I have been consumed with the passion to see a different nation, which I believe to be very possible. I have thrown my life into it. In terms of my balance sheet, I am operating at a deficit financially, but no one sent me to do this, so I am not complaining. I can't forget the example set by a good friend, (Kayode Ogundamisi) who had to disguise as a delivery man in order to take pictures of a Governor's Bentley in his garage in London. These are the type of commitments I have been able to tap into to make these reports possible for all Nigerians, to see what their governors and other officials do with their money.
What inspired you to go into this type of ‘death-wish' journalism, if you like?
If you have ever travelled through any West African country you will be really pissed at Nigerian leaders, there is no basis for the current poverty and the wreckage of Nigeria, that in itself is more than enough to motivate anyone... Writing exposés, as you call them is my basic method of 'anger management' since I don't have the means or motivation to nuke up our leaders. Writing became an option because I hate stories in the local media that carries clichés such as 'names withheld'. I think our style of writing demystified those journalistic jargons and clichés. It was also an avenue to deliver unadulterated news report to average readers with access to the Internet, though still a negligible minority.
The news of the moment is your disengagement from elendureports.com, as their star writer, what do you think will be the fate of the outfit now that you have left?
I don't subscribe to titles, what do you mean by a star writer? Most people, including you, can write better than I do. I don't think that my departure would affect the writing skills of the people running the website. I wasn't writing for stardom, I was writing for change, I went into writing to support my aspirations for a better Nigeria. I did not leave elendureports.com with the aim that it would collapse. I hope that it gets better; this decision had been in the pipeline for sometime. I even took a break sometime in November 2005. Principally, Jonathan (Elendu) indicated to me that he would go into political consulting in 2007, which means that the outfit will take a partisan position somehow. With due respect, I don't believe in the current political process in Nigeria. I didn't want to be hemmed into any political alliance which will damage my legitimate aspiration to seek freedom outside of the confines of the democratic contraption labelled as democracy in Nigeria today, the only purpose Nigerian democracy serve is its usefulness as a tool for blackmailing Nigerians into silence. I thought it would amount to suicide to consult for or with any of the political entities in the present Nigeria without thoroughly compromising my principles. This is the principal reason for leaving, of course amongst other private concerns that I have expressed to him and other members of our close-knit network over time.
Can you share with us how you met Jonathan Elendu and how both of you successfully forged an investigative writing force in so short a time?
The most shocking part of this is that we have never met before in person, I mean till the time I left. It was an association that emerged purely on faith (even though I am not a religious person). I met him shortly after I returned from Nigeria last year (2005). I had just conducted that famous interview with Governor Orji Kalu of Abia State, the one that he flatly denied that he ever spoke with me. Amongst the various Nigerians that e-mailed me -taking different stance, for or against- was Jonathan Elendu, he told me that he had practiced journalism for sometime and wondered if I actually interviewed Kalu. I told him yes, and that I need not lie about that. He asked if I could give him Kalu's telephone numbers, I gave him everything. He interviewed Kalu after interviewing me. He came back later and said that he was shocked to find out that Kalu admitted that we spoke, but then he was having difficulties publishing his interviews (with me and Orji Kalu) with the outfit that he had worked with for five years! He was upset. I told him not to worry, as we discussed he told me that he had an idea to start a website and wondered if we could partner together. I was hesitant because I didn't know him, and hadn't heard about him before then and I didn't share his commentary about the interview with Kalu, he said I was the 'other side of the same coin as Kalu"- which I objected to but respected his rights to make his judgments. But as time went on we had useful discussions and I decided to give it a try. He wanted me to have a title with his website. I declined, as I thought it was unnecessary. I decided to remain an ordinary writer, which means that I also kept my regular e-mail. I told him that I always want to have a choice to publish anywhere I wanted. That was how we started. In all fairness to him, he had maintained that he would like to do political consulting. But I thought we had gotten to a point where he could not be involved with working for any political candidate without compromising the work we were doing. Gradually my enthusiasm began to wane in terms of continuing to work with him. I respect his skills as a writer but I think we came to the project or enterprise together for different reasons. He sees our engagements differently, for me, I see it as a battle to change Nigeria, I believe he views it as a means to further his consultancy work; we began to part ways in different directions from that point. If you work for change, you seek to build movements that would make them happen, but individuals who seek to further consultancy work only work to build their Rolodexes. I enjoyed every bit of our work. It has revolutionized Internet publishing in Nigeria. And also it has created a sense of alternative media, it was something very fantastic!
It is quite obvious that whatever model you guys used, that it worked; do you think that such a model can work again if tried by other writers/journalists and what is its longevity?
Definitely the model will work again, what I would like to see is a duplication or multiplication of this type of effort, when the Wright Brothers invented the airplane (please ignore my high-floating comparisons here!) they never thought about huge airplanes that can take half of a city across the world. I really hope this can motivate more partnerships amongst our citizens to democratize freedom of information more quickly. We were able to help provide Nigeria's local media with alternatives such that Reuters and BBC were no longer the only sources of credible news. The longevity of any partnership is always dependent on variables such as the ideology and philosophy of such partnerships. Part of the problem with ours was that we had so much work to do; we didn't even think that we needed to work out a real partnership that would be guided by certain principles. The demand for our work was overwhelming!
Do you have friends in government and who are they?
That's the funniest question I would say; I only know people in government in Nigeria the same way a student would learn about them in a civics class. I have never been to a governor's office before, never met anyone in the executive arm of the government in Nigeria. As a policy, I don't attend gatherings where Nigerian government officials gather. Only if there was a protest! I could never pretend that I love characters that put my home country in bondage by wearing my best attire to a reception and act as though I love what they do!
Has President Olusegun Obasanjo or other government officials ever tried to contact you over a story, directly or indirectly?
Until recently, whenever we published stories I never even have a contact e-mail attached. Jonathan's contact and office phones are the ones listed on the website. There are a few moves here and there, usually an unsolicited offer to make donations towards our work, that I suspected were attempts at reaching out to me from government quarters, but I am really very quick to rebuff such attempts. I make it clear that I have no interest in working either for Obasanjo or any of the other people running Nigeria today. But from our sources in Nigeria, we have been regaled by the stories that they are concerned about our activities. I am usually happy when I hear that they ask who those boys are. There was no room in my heart to consider working for any of them; I hate their type of governance with passion.
Have you finally reconciled with Governor Orji Kalu? And what do you think of his 2007 bid for president?
I never had any beef with Governor Orji Kalu. Shortly after he denied the existence of that interview with me, he called me to say some nice things about me and he told me that he believes in what we do, but with a caveat that he wants us to be friends and would like me to get familiar with his campaign for President. I detest politicians especially Nigerian politicians and I have never thought much of Orji Kalu. In 2007, I think he will be running for relevance, his presidential bid is of value as long as he is not ignored. I think Gov. Orji Kalu is obsessed with publicity to the extent that he will fall sick if he were to open a newspaper in the morning and not find his name!
How do you relax in your free time?
I don't really have much free time. I swim during the summer, if I ever have time to do so. I grew up beside a lake, I love water a lot!
Do you have any role models?
I read about role models in primary and secondary schools in civics/history class. In the university, I had to fight each and everyone of them, part of what needs to change are those ideas of role models, our history celebrates crooks, we now know better.
Finally, what are your dreams for Nigeria?
People who can't sleep can't dream, I would like to see a Nigeria the day after a revolution. Seriously, the world of dreams smacks of certain laziness that makes me think we are still on our knees waiting for answered prayers; it depicts a surreal life of something out of space. Dreams make me think of complacency, you don't really need to go to sleep to know how you want Nigeria to be!