Omoyele Sowore, a human rights activist and the publisher of Sahara Reporters, stated on Monday that Ushie Uguamaye, a youth corps member who lambasted President Bola Tinubu’s administration for hardship, is under enormous pressure to apologise.
Sowore, who accompanied the corps member to the NYSC Local Government Inspector’s office in Lagos with a team of attorneys, stated that government officials, including ministers, had been contacting Uguamaye to pressure him to apologise.
Speaking on Arise TV on Monday night, Sowore argued that the corps members had not committed a crime by opposing Tinubu’s administration.
In a now-viral TikTok video, Uguamaye, a Lagos-based corps member, lambasted President Bola Tinubu’s government on Saturday, expressing anger with Nigeria’s deteriorating economic conditions and lamenting rising inflation and economic hardship.
She also lambasted the president, branding him as a “terrible leader”, and questioned the government’s efforts to ameliorate citizens’ hardships.
The corp member said, “I’m coming from a supermarket where I went to grab some food, and everything has gone up again. Prices seem to go up every week.
“I want to know, what is the government doing about this increase? If a lot of Nigerians come out and start speaking about what we are going through, maybe changes will be made in the government.
“I don’t know if there is any other president that is as terrible as you (Mr Tinubu). But you (Mr Tinubu) are such a terrible president.”
She then claimed that she had received threats as a result of her words, triggering a national debate over free speech and political opposition in Nigeria.
She also uploaded a screenshot of an invitation from the NYSC, calling her to appear before the LGI office at Eti Osa 3 on Monday at 10:00 a.m.
On Monday, Sowore disclosed in a video posted on X that he had met with Uguamaye in Lagos and would be accompanying her to the NYSC Local Government Inspector’s office with a team of attorneys.
“The journey with youth corper, Ushie Rita Uguamaye, has commenced in Lagos.
“She is scheduled to appear before the LGI (Local Government Inspector) today, and we will escort her to their offices. We are all en route with attorneys,” Sowore captioned the video.
Giving an update later, the activist wrote: “We arrived at Eti-Osa LGI offices of the National Youth Service Corps with youth corper, Ushie Rita Uguamaye, in Lagos. She was scheduled to appear before the LGI today, and we escorted her to their offices with attorneys Festus Ogun, Adeyinka Oyesomi and Ojienoh Justice, but LGI officials had absconded, failing to show up throughout our stay. We will be back! #RevolutionNow #tinubuisaterriblepresident.”
Meanwhile, Agba Jalingo, an activist and journalist, encouraged Nigerians and authorities to show Uguamaye empathy and support rather than criticising her over the viral video.
In a Facebook post on Monday, Jalingo stated that Uguamaye experienced a personal tragedy as a result of poor government policies when her father, Raphael Ushie, a Chief Inspector of the Nigeria Immigration Service, died in May 2019 while protesting the demolition of his palm plantation for the Obudu International Airport project.
Jalingo explained, “There was a protest by youths and women of the Ukambi community over the demolition of their community farmlands for the Obudu International cargo and passenger airport.
“According to a CrossRiverWatch report, her dad, Ushie, who was also the younger brother of Governor Ayade’s physician, Dr Vincent Ushie, died after he was rushed from a hospital in Obudu to the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, having participated in the protest.”
He explained that Ushie, who was nearing retirement, had put his life savings into a palm plantation in Ukambi.
When he heard that demolitions had begun in surrounding settlements and were approaching Ukambi, he rushed home to preserve his property.
“He arrived and went straight to the farm in his uniform and met the bulldozer nearing his plantation. He faced the operator and tried to prevent him from encroaching on his land before other community members joined him.
“He participated fully in the day’s protest, and the demolition collapsed afterwards. He was rushed to a hospital in Obudu. The matter couldn’t be handled there, and he was moved to UCTH in Calabar, where he passed on,” Jalingo recounted.
Jalingo stated that despite losing her father and their farm, Uguamaye’s family received no compensation, leaving her mother to struggle with her education.
“And this young girl goes to the market and comes back to complain about what everyone in the country, including the president’s supporters, are grumbling about, and some persons are calling for her head?” Jalingo questioned.
“If you were in her shoes—you live in a country where the system kills your dad for no reason when you are only 19, your mother suffers to see you through school, and when you try to express your frustrations publicly, the same nation that killed your father threatens to kill you too—so where is the freedom of expression?” he added.
