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Omoyele Sowore, former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), has revealed that his experiences under Nigeria’s civilian government in recent years have been harsher than during the military regime, describing a period marked by arrests, intimidation, and restrictions on his freedom.
Sowore made the remarks on Friday during an appearance on *Inside Sources with Laolu Akande* on Channels TV, where he drew sharp contrasts between his treatment under military rule and the democracy he says has failed to guarantee his basic rights.
‘We Let Down Our Guards’
“The society takes it for granted that this is democracy. So, we had no guards. We just let down our guards, walking into the darkness of what they call democracy, without being in that kind of added position that we were under military rule,” Sowore said.
He recounted that during his early activism, he had been detained briefly by the Department of State Services (DSS) while at the University of Lagos, and again during his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) posting in Yola.
“They arrested me and released me after a while even without a court order,” he recalled.
Courtroom Abduction and Torture Under Democracy
Yet, Sowore noted, the treatment he has received under civilian administrations tells a far darker story.
“Since I’ve been under civilian rule, I’ve spent a longer time—abducted in the courtroom under democracy. I was beaten up, rough handled, tortured. I have been restricted to Abuja for three years.”
Passport Seizure and Unbroken Patterns
Highlighting the stark contrast between military and civilian enforcement, Sowore pointed to a specific indignity he never faced during the military era.
“My passport was never seized under the military, even though I didn’t have a passport technically under the military because I didn’t travel anywhere. But they had always put me on a watchlist.
“The fact that people change uniforms does not mean that they changed their conducts. I didn’t think that after all the years under military rule, somebody was going to seize my passport at the airport.”
Sowore’s comments underscore a growing frustration among some activists and opposition figures who argue that democratic governance has not translated into greater freedoms, but rather has introduced new forms of state control and suppression.
