Osamagbe Imadiyi
Omoyele Sowore, a human rights advocate and publisher of Sahara Reporters, stated on Monday that Ushie Uguamaye, a member of the youth corps who criticized President Bola Tinubu’s administration for hardship, is under extreme pressure to issue an apology. Sowore, who accompanied the corps member and a group of attorneys to the NYSC Local Government Inspector’s office in Lagos, claimed that ministers and other government representatives had been contacting Uguamaye to urge him to issue an apology. Speaking Monday night on Arise TV, Sowore maintained that the corps members’ criticism of Tinubu’s government was an exercise of their right to free speech and that they had done nothing illegal.
In a TikTok video that has gone viral, Uguamaye, a corp member from Lagos, blasted President Bola Tinubu’s administration on Saturday, lamenting the high rate of inflation and economic hardship and expressing frustration over Nigeria’s worsening economic circumstances. She also questioned the government’s attempts to lessen the suffering endured by the populace and criticized the president, calling him a “terrible leader. “She later claimed that she had been threatened because of her remarks, which sparked a heated discussion about political dissent and free speech in Nigeria. She also posted a screenshot of an invitation from the NYSC asking her to come to the LGI office at Eti Osa 3 on Monday at 10:00 a.m.
In a video posted on X on Monday, Sowore said he had met with Uguamaye in Lagos and that he and a group of lawyers would be going to the NYSC Local Government Inspector’s office together. Later, the activist posted an update: “We traveled to Lagos with youth corper Ushie Rita Uguamaye to visit the National Youth Service Corps’ Eti-Osa LGI offices. She was supposed to appear before the LGI today, so we accompanied her to their offices with lawyers Festus Ogun, Adeyinka Oyesomi, and Ojienoh Justice. However, during our visit, LGI officials had fled and failed to appear. We will be back!”.
Agba Jalingo, a journalist and activist, urged Nigerians and authorities to support and sympathize with Uguamaye rather than denounce her for the widely shared video. Jalingo said in a Facebook post on Monday that Uguamaye’s father, Raphael Ushie, a Chief Inspector of the Nigeria Immigration Service, died in May 2019 after opposing the demolition of his palm plantation for the Obudu International Airport project, causing her to suffer a personal tragedy connected to bad government policies.
