UNILORIN Expelled You, I Helped You Secure UNILAG Admission — Sowore Blasts APC Scribe Ajibola Basiru
The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has slammed the National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ajibola Basiru, over his recent remarks describing him as a skit maker.
Sowore disclosed that he facilitated Basiru’s admission into the University of Lagos (UNILAG) after his expulsion from the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) for student activism.
The human rights activist made the disclosure in a post on X on Thursday, in response to comments made by Basiru during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday.
Basiru had during the interview referred to Sowore as a “skit maker and comedian.”
In his response, Sowore shared a photograph taken with Basiru in 1998 when he led the Congress of Progressive Youths (COPY) in the struggle against military dictatorship.
According to Sowore, Basiru came to the University of Lagos after he was expelled from the University of Ilorin in 1992 for his involvement in student activism.
“I received him alongside Kunle Adegoke, popularly known as K-Rad, who is now a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. We provided them with an enabling environment to apply to re-enter the university, gain admission, and study Law at the University of Lagos,” Sowore stated.
He added that both men eventually graduated with flying colours.
Sowore also faulted Basiru’s argument that opposition candidates should be ashamed for losing to President Bola Tinubu because he was declared winner of the 2023 presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He maintained that the struggle for justice and democracy should not be trivialized.
“The struggle for justice, democracy, freedom and the preservation of human dignity is neither skit-making nor comedy. Ajibola knows this because he was once part of that struggle and benefited from the solidarity of those who refused to surrender to military tyranny,” Sowore said.
The former student union leader noted that political appointments are temporary and that the current administration will eventually exit power just like the military regimes they jointly opposed in their youth.
“What is truly comical is watching yesterday’s beneficiaries of resistance become today’s defenders of the very oppression they once fought against,” he added.
