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I have no interest in working for Obasanjo –Sowore
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 wrong. He treads where angels dare not with his expose brand of writing. 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. The duo have also been compared to the Americans - Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Watergate fame. But just when Nigerians were beginning to get used to their weekly firebrand stories and investigative reports, Omoyele Sowore announced that he was disengaging from elendureports.com, thus fuelling speculations of a bust-up with Jonathan Elendu. In this rare e-interview, Omoyele Sowore opens up to Uche Nworah on his life, his mission and what really went wrong at 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 was it like growing up?
I grew up in Nigeria, in the village at Kiribo. There was no electricity, or running water, no television, no postal office. Just three missionary primary schools and policemen who constantly came to extort women on market days-every nine days!
Did you enjoy any special privileges as a child?
No privileges at all, my dad told us that part of growing up discipline, was to live in certain state of deprivation. He talked about chastity, purity and treating oneself last. Even when I was grown enough to be on my own in the village, as the first son, he never let me have a room to myself. He loaded me up with a bunch of snitches that reported to him every turn I made on the bed at night. When I was 12, he taught me how to ride a motorcycle (Suzuki 100 cc.) so that I could fish at the lake for the entire family before going to school every morning!
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. 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 to shoot up Nigerian leaders. Writing exposes, 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 carry 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 serves 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 had 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 practised 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 did’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 war 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, 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!
Of course, people respect your personal decision to leave elendureports.com, but at the same time they are eager to know what really went wrong between you and Jonathan Elendu? Would you say that elendureports.com compromised the original concept in any way?
Just like I mentioned earlier, there were no original concepts or rules of existence or engagement; we were just two nice guys who met somehow and hit it off quickly. Part of the lessons for others who may take up this type of engagement is to be clear about the concept from inception, draw out a structure and article of engagement based upon certain principles. As I remember, we only agreed to keep faith with the authenticity and credibility of our stories whenever we co-wrote stories; it is not enough to tighten all loose ends!
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 had 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 crook 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 Orji Kalu to be a principled person. In 2007, I think he will be running for relevance; his presidential bid is of value as long as he is not ignored. In my estimate, I think Governor 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!
Are you interested in the 2007 politics? What will you say if you were called upon to serve your people in any capacity?
I have repeatedly said it that I don’t believe in the political process in Nigeria. I am not interested in politics. I am hoping that my future engagements can help clean the augean stable called Nigeria and open the political space for honest people to participate in politics, but not this one! I hate the cliché that people can be invited to serve their fatherland, it gives credence to the belief that the homeland actually belongs to some feudal lords who can call in people to serve at their pleasure. I consider my writings as a considerable amount of service to the Nigerian people. I need to do more!
So after elendureports.com, what next? Any plans to set up your own news agency?
I might set up a news feed kind of website or a blog. Generally, I want to continue to make my writings available in as many media and platforms as possible.
What is your assessment of the Nigerian journalist today?
It is very hard to say. I witnessed the era of journalism when the Nigerian press practically ran Nigeria from their various newsrooms. They made the daily life of Nigerian dictators miserable, even though they controlled NTA, Radio Nigeria and some other government - owned newspapers. They really tried and they worked hard! But the topography of media ownership has altered all that. State governors and other persons own most of the newspapers are active in government. I guess that is the source of the quality of what is in the Nigeria media today. There is an unspoken and unwritten rule that some of the newspapers would not rock the boat of their owners, no matter how interesting or factual a story may be. But I still doff my hat for the average newspaper reporter in Nigeria. They are bearing the torch, but the batteries are really weak!
Have you ever thought about taking your skills back to Nigeria, to work either for the Nigerian government or other communication agencies?
My skills, (if you call them skills) are currently deplored in Nigeria. We write reports that are targeted at Nigeria and Nigerians- both at home and abroad. I will not work for an undemocratic and anti-people government. So, do not expect me to work for government. I will continue to ally with credible communication agencies in Nigeria and in the diaspora with the aim of furthering our aspirations for a fair, just, transparent and equitable Nigeria!
I already work in Nigeria out of the US. My heart and soul is in Nigeria. The only difference is that I don’t get paid for working for Nigeria because I don’t work for the owners of Nigeria (using Seyi Oduyela’s words).
Tell us about the special woman in your life? Or do you think that your tell all brand of writing intimidates women?
If you have a sister, would you ever encourage her to marry me? I will have to check with the special woman in my life if she would like her affairs to be discussed on the Internet. No, I have decided to carry this cross alone, for now. I have a private life and a special someone whom I have decided not to bring into my public life!
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!
Have you ever thought about writing a book about your experiences with your exposé writing, just like Ndaeyo Uko’s satirical book on Babangida’s presidency (Rock n Rule)?
I have a life that pre-dates writing exposé; I have started writing my experiences down gradually. I don’t like to promise to write a book because I don’t want anyone to hold me to that promise, if I don’t do it on time. I would first love to write about my life as a student activist before I write about the things I did as a roadside journalist
One looks at you sometimes and remembers Dele Giwa and his dogged approach to news reporting; something that eventually cost him his life. Are you not afraid for your life?
It will be immodest on my part to accept the Dele Giwa comparison. I am not a journalist of that calibre, and I don’t even consider myself a journalist. This is just a branch of the ministry to shine light on the evil done by our leaders with the hope that more Nigerians can be mobilized to the point of taking collective action. In terms of security, I will say this: there is a point to which you get and you should never have to worry about your security. I have reached that point in my life. So many attempts have been made on my life already; I can conveniently say that everyday of my life is a borrowed day. On this latest trip to Lagos in December 2005, I was held at gunpoint by a bike-robber (Lagos hobbers who operate on Okada motorcycles). I was there in front of him with two of my friends arguing why I won’t be lying down on the street, because he wanted my money, until one of my friends created a distraction that enabled us to escape. This happened to me in full public glare; vehicles were passing by and they watched as we were held up with a silver gun that was conspicuous for all to see. There was streetlight. It was in front of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) near Agidingbi in Ikeja-Lagos. It was less than three minutes from the office of a major newspaper and about 25 yards from a police checkpoint. After we escaped that ordeal, I told myself once again that no one is safe in Nigeria – it doesn’t matter what you do, and such is the life of an average Nigerian citizen. It has no value really; our leaders treat us the same way an armed robber would treat us!
Have you ever been arrested or detained in Nigeria over some of your stories?
I know that we may probably have been arrested or harassed or even killed for every single story we have written. But somehow, they don’t control the media spaces we use. They do threaten us with anonymous phone calls; they threaten to sue us all the time! Once, they broke into my car in Brooklyn, my car windows were smashed. But, I am sure they know that those things don’t mean anything to me. Even, Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala (the Minister of Finance) with her Harvard education was threatening us, saying that Nigerian SSS has contacted the FBI because we published her home address in one of our stories. You can bet she would have ordered our detention if we were within her jurisdiction!
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!
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