Human rights activist and Sahara Reporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore, has alleged that youth corps member, Ushie Uguamaye, who publicly criticised President Bola Tinubu’s administration, is under intense pressure to apologise.
Sowore made the claim on Monday while accompanying Uguamaye to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Local Government Inspector’s office in Lagos alongside a team of lawyers. According to him, government officials, including ministers, have been reaching out, urging the corps member to retract her statements.
Uguamaye’s ordeal began after she posted a TikTok video on Saturday, expressing frustration over Nigeria’s worsening economic conditions. In the video, she lamented rising inflation and the economic hardship plaguing the country.
“I am coming from a supermarket where I went to get foodstuff, and everything has gone up again. It’s just like every single week, prices keep increasing,” she said.
She then questioned the government’s efforts to curb inflation, stating:
“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.”
Following the video’s circulation, Uguamaye alleged that she had received threats over her comments, with the NYSC summoning her to appear before the Local Government Inspector’s office in Eti-Osa on Monday at 10 a.m.
On Monday, Sowore, in a video shared on X (formerly Twitter), revealed that he had met with Uguamaye and would be accompanying her to the NYSC office with attorneys. However, upon arrival, the officials were reportedly absent.
“We arrived at the Eti-Osa LGI offices of the NYSC 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… but LGI officials had absconded, failing to show up throughout our stay,” Sowore stated.
Meanwhile, journalist and activist Agba Jalingo has urged Nigerians to show empathy for Uguamaye, citing her personal struggles. Jalingo revealed that her late father, Raphael Ushie, a Chief Inspector of the Nigeria Immigration Service, died in 2019 after protesting the demolition of his palm plantation for the Obudu International Airport project.
Despite losing her father and the family farm, Jalingo noted that Uguamaye’s family never received compensation, leaving her mother to struggle to support her education.
“This young girl goes to the market and complains about what everyone in the country is already grumbling about, yet some people are calling for her head?” Jalingo wrote on Facebook.
On the other hand, a senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, Temitope Ajayi, has called for Uguamaye’s immediate expulsion from the NYSC.
Ajayi, in a statement on Monday, stressed that the NYSC’s values of dignity, discipline, and mutual respect must be upheld.
“I suggested that blatant disregard for NYSC by-laws and established protocols should be met with the full weight of NYSC disciplinary measures,” Ajayi stated.
He added, “The NYSC scheme is a historic and valued national programme that should not be undermined by acts of indiscipline.”
Uguamaye’s case has sparked a wider debate about free speech and political dissent in Nigeria. While critics argue that she should have exercised restraint in her criticism of the president, many activists insist that she was simply exercising her right to freedom of expression.
As pressure mounts, it remains to be seen whether the corps member will yield to calls for an apology or if this incident will set a precedent for how dissenting voices are treated under the current administration.
