On Akande’s Twitter Space: Sowore, Aisha & Ogebe blast FG over treatment of Nigerians below foreigners, discuss US sanctions

Prominent activists Omoyele Sowore, Aisha Yesufu, and US-based international human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe on Tuesday delivered scathing criticism of the Federal Government during a Twitter Space hosted by former presidential aide, Laolu Akande. The Space, which drew over 7,000 listeners, focused on worsening insecurity, governance failures, and the government’s response to recent abductions — […]

Prominent activists Omoyele Sowore, Aisha Yesufu, and US-based international human rights lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe on Tuesday delivered scathing criticism of the Federal Government during a Twitter Space hosted by former presidential aide, Laolu Akande.

The Space, which drew over 7,000 listeners, focused on worsening insecurity, governance failures, and the government’s response to recent abductions — particularly the kidnapping of schoolchildren from St. Mary’s. The discussion quickly evolved into a broader interrogation of accountability, leadership, and the value the Nigerian state places on its own citizens.

US-based lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe delivered a blistering critique of the government’s handling of kidnappings and its rejection of foreign assistance.
“We are now over two weeks of the St Mary’s children’s abduction. As I’m talking to you, nobody has been deployed to assist. Why? Because when the St Mary’s abductions occurred, the Nigerian security apparatus wanted to convince the Americans that they are in control of the situation. So, when your house is on fire, someone said they want to help you, you said no,” he said.

Ogebe further accused President Bola Tinubu of prioritising foreign political agendas over Nigerian lives.
“Tinubu refused the US offer to kill the people killing Nigerians and then unilaterally deployed Nigerian airforce to go and bomb in a foreign country. What is shocking about it is not only the violation of the law — Tinubu has tried to invade Niger when there was a coup, so the same exact circumstances — and National Assembly refused to give him authorisation. And so, he did not invade Niger.

“And these same people are saying the US should not come and help them to kill the terrorists who are killing Nigerians.”
He concluded grimly:
“Clearly, the Nigerian citizens will always take last place compared to an elite including Francophone elite in a foreign country. That’s how bad things are.”
Human rights activist Aisha Yesufu condemned the hierarchy of empathy and selective outrage she said has come to define Nigeria’s response to violence.
“In Nigeria, for your death to matter, you have to be strategically killed,” she said.
She explained how religion, ethnicity, and geography dictate which killings spark national outcry.
“For example, I’m a Muslim from the Southern part of the country. If I’m killed where I am, it doesn’t make news. Nobody cares. If [Northern] Muslims are killed in Edo state, it becomes news. For example, what happened during Uromi.
“This is where as citizens we have failed ourselves and have given the terrorists the enabling environment for them to continue to throw people.”
Her comments underscored a broader sentiment: beyond government failure, Nigerians themselves must confront their complicity in normalising selective justice.
Journalist and former presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore pushed back against efforts to frame the violence as “Christian genocide,” insisting instead that Nigerians across religious lines are victims of state failure.
“My own broad position is that just reducing it to persecution of Christians alone… is completely inadequate. It misses the mark,” he said.
“They don’t target Christians alone, they target Muslims. And what has been happening is the failure of Nigeria’s leaders to protect its citizens.”
Sowore argued that both state and non-state actors have engaged in genocidal acts — pointing to:
• The Nigerian Army’s massacre of IMN members in Zaria,
• The killings at the Lekki Toll Gate in 2020,
• And retired and serving officials allegedly linked to terrorist financing.
He insisted that sanctions must not be selective or symbolic.
“It’s way deeper than just symbolic action of picking on some few. There are serving and retired Nigerian public officials who should also be sanctioned.”
Sowore also dismissed the idea that visa bans would deter corrupt officials.
“If you have $600 million, who cares about visa ban?
There are alternatives — Kenya, Dubai, others — where they move money and still enjoy their loot.”
He cautioned Nigerians against depending excessively on foreign countries to resolve domestic failures.
“I’m opposed to Nigerians always looking forward to the US helping them solve their problems. People should be thinking about how to resolve these problems back home.”
Opening the discussion, Laolu Akande provided context on the proposed US sanctions being debated in Washington.
“One of the most interesting things about the sanctions is that they are not just targeting the United States where these people may have assets,” he said.
“They also have a framework that enables them to apply some of the specific sanctions outside of the United States. There is what is called the Global Magnitsky framework… anytime the Americans impose a freeze on the account of anybody, those other countries will also do the same thing.”
Akande also read out the organisations listed in Congressman Christopher Smith’s bill, including:
• Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN),
• Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore,
• Fulani ethnic militias operating in Benue and Plateau States.
The bill seeks to apply targeted sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act to Nigerian individuals and groups allegedly implicated in genocide and religious persecution.
The Twitter Space revealed deep-seated frustrations among Nigerians who believe their government treats them with less dignity and priority than foreign interests. With rising insecurity, recurring mass abductions, and repeated allegations of official complicity or negligence, the activists argued that Nigeria is confronting a crisis not only of security but of value — the value it places on the lives of its own people.
For many listeners, the Space served as yet another reminder that unless accountability becomes central to governance, the cycle of violence, outrage, and neglect will persist.
And as Sowore, Yesufu, and Ogebe made clear: the Nigerian state can no longer afford to treat its citizens as an afterthought.