Omoyele Sowore is riding the wrong horse by taking on Otti. To start with, Abia people are happy with the performance of their governor, who has achieved in less than three years, what the previous administrations, put together, could not achieve in 24 years. So, Otti does not need Sowore’s validation. Those who matter – Abians – are already doing that. The ranting of an aggrieved interloper will not make any difference… Omoyele Sowore should watch it. Creating disruption for its own sake is not activism. It is nuisance. The line that divides both phenomena is rather thin. The earlier he pulls back from the brink of this self-destructive gambit, the better for him and those who still believe he can be redeemed.
By IKECHUKWU AMAECHI
Omoyele Sowore’s recent visit to Aba, the Southeast commercial nerve centre, is creating a buzz. The politician, who doubles as an activist and social crusader, was in Enyimba City to lead a protest demanding freedom for the imprisoned leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who hails from Umuahia, the capital city of Abia State.
Some discerning commentators suggest that there could be more to the protest and the decision to hold it in Aba than meets the eye. Could it have been a hatchet job targeted at Abia State governor, Dr. Alex Otti? If true, in whose interest? Could it have been a ploy to instigate crisis in Aba that will provoke scotched-earth reaction from the Federal Government?
Wouldn’t the protest have been more potent in Abuja where decisions concerning Kanu are taken or even Sokoto where he is presently incarcerated?
Citizen Bolaji Akinyemi raised the same issues in an article titled, “Consistency and context: Sowore, Abia and the politics of process,” on March 23, 2026, when he asserted that: “The geography of protest is never neutral. It communicates intent, whether consciously designed or inadvertently projected. And in a politically charged environment — where opposition elements within Abia are actively seeking to unseat the current administration — the optics of such a protest cannot be divorced from its implications.”
I couldn’t agree more!
And Sowore showed his hand with his subsequent “Alex Otti is a failure,” outburst. In a video that has now gone viral, he said, “After visiting Abia State, I can confirm that Alex Otti is a failure because I don’t believe in half transformation.” That is rather too sweeping and prejudiced a statement to make. He predicated his assessment on his visit to a particular market in the Enyimba City.“
When you enter Ariaria Market which is the biggest economic hub there, the place looks like Jurassic Park. But when you get to the main road, of course, there is some transformation. But mine is total… I don’t believe in half transformation,” he ranted.So, at what point did the Kanu protest become an assessment mission to ascertain the level of Otti’s performance?
This raises a fundamental issue that must not be glossed over. If truly the objective of Sowore’s visit to Abia was to mount pressure on the federal government to put an end to the needless and inglorious Kanu saga, then common sense should dictate, as I alluded to earlier, that pressure should be concentrated in Abuja, Nigeria’s seat of government, where decisions concerning Kanu’s fate are taken.“
To redirect that pressure toward Aba, in a manner that casts the state government in a negative light,” as Bolaji Akinyemi further noted, “risks suggesting that the protest may be serving layered purposes beyond its stated aim.”
This is an inescapable conclusion considering that Sowore has a relationship with Otti that is not necessarily perfunctory. But even more important is the fact that if, indeed, it is all about Nnamdi Kanu’s freedom, then in Otti, Sowore has a partner, not an adversary. Even before Kanu’s conviction, the governor had met with President Bola Tinubu in Aso Rock to canvass for his freedom.
Unfortunately, for reasons best known to the powers that be in Abuja, every plea for a reprieve for Kanu from well-meaning Igbos has been treated with utmost disdain.
But that has not deterred Otti. When eventually the Biafran agitator was convicted and sent to jail, the governor was the first to visit him in prison in Sokoto. And ever since, he has not allowed the fact of the conviction to dampen his belief that a political solution will better serve the interest of Kanu, Alaigbo and, indeed, Nigeria. And not being someone who plays to the gallery, he is pushing for Kanu’s freedom out of conviction, not self-glorification.
Sowore can’t claim ignorance of Otti’s principled interventions aimed at resolving this impasse. Therefore, any protest demanding the release of Nnamdi Kanu from prison which is staged in opposition to, or in disregard of, a governor who is already engaging that very cause at the highest level of government is at best a mischief, or worse, a hatchet job.
And Sowore’s tantrums bear witness to his sinister motive. He is on a hatchet mission which unfortunately for him failed woefully, hence his frustration. He went to Abia State expecting a deal. He had expected that the governor would invite him to plead that the protest be shelved, which would have given him the opportunity to grandstand. But he didn’t reckon with Otti’s sure-footedness. When a leader is sure of his standing with his people, such braggadocio does not faze. So, he ignored the overzealous interloper, knowing full well the tectonic shift in orientation that is beginning to hold sway in Alaigbo. It is no longer the Enyimba Enyi (herd) mentality that hitherto held sway. Igbo youths are wiser and no longer prone to presenting their heads for the breaking of Nigeria’s asinine coconut of bigotry.
Sowore had also expected that security agents deployed to the protest venue would be highhanded, thereby provoking some kind of violent reaction from aggrieved youths. Had that happened, there would have been mayhem and that would have surely wrong-footed the governor. But he didn’t reckon with Otti’s political sagacity and emotional intelligence in governance. His instruction to the security agents was unambiguous. “Your job is to protect the protesters not harass or intimidate them.” They had him loud and clear and delivered accordingly.So, at the end, despite the huge presence of security personnel including soldiers, not even a canister of teargas was fired, not to talk of using batons to break limbs. The protest remained one of the most peaceful in recent Nigerian history.
Make no mistake: the choice of Aba as protest venue was not by happenstance. It was deliberate based on the perception of volatility of the city and hotheadedness of the indigenes. So, Sowore and his co-travellers on the boulevard of mischief anticipated a dangerous escalation. That did not happen. Instead, there was significant restraint that resulted in a peaceful protest. Rather than throwing stones, the protesters were taking selfies and praising the governor not only for his developmental strides but also for significantly expanding the civic space and deepening the culture of tolerance.There is no doubt that the people are aggrieved at the treatment the Nigerian state is meting out to Nnamdi Kanu, but they are not going to allow their grievance to becloud their sense of duty to Alaigbo by giving those who wish them harm an excuse to kill and maim and retard the huge and observable development the state is witnessing under Otti’s watch.
So, Sowore left Aba deflated. For a man who thrives in unnecessary controversy and vainglorious showboating, that was too bitter a pill to swallow and he blames Otti for that, hence the outburst.
But he is riding the wrong horse by taking on Otti. To start with, Abia people are happy with the performance of their governor, who has achieved in less than three years, what the previous administrations, put together, could not achieve in 24 years.They appreciate the fact that their governor is proving by his actions in office that he appreciates what political scientists call the four “Ps of Governance” – Purpose, People, Process, and Performance. He has proved beyond doubt that he has both moral clarity and effective, honest execution in leadership, thus underscoring Narendra Modi, India Prime Minister’s quip that, “Good governance with good intentions is the hallmark of our government. Implementation with integrity is our core passion.”
Otti does not only have good intentions for the people as clearly manifested in the projects he is executing, but in implementing his policies and programmes, he has done so with a level of integrity that is uncommon in these shores. Through inclusivity, he has taken governance to the people. He has demystified governance without breaking a sweat and Abians are ululating, yearning for more.
So, he does not need Sowore’s validation. Those who matter – Abians – are already doing that. The ranting of an aggrieved interloper will not make any difference.In any case, isn’t the fact that Sowore acknowledges “half transformation” an admission that Abia under Otti’s watch is no longer where it used to be? Shouldn’t that count for something? So, how does “failure” come into the narrative? Transformation is a process, not an event. If a man has been able to deliver “half transformation” in two years during a four-year tenure that has the potential of extending to eight years, how can that be failure?
Omoyele Sowore should watch it. Creating disruption for its own sake is not activism. It is nuisance. The line that divides both phenomena is rather thin. The earlier he pulls back from the brink of this self-destructive gambit, the better for him and those who still believe he can be redeemed.
