A fierce war of words erupted on Thursday, October 22, 2026, between the National Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ajibola Basiru, and human rights activist Omoyele Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC). The row follows a formal request by the AAC to host its presidential campaign council inauguration inside the Presidential Villa.
The political friction began on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, when the AAC sent an official letter signed by its National Secretary, Oshiokhai Ikpeminioghena, to the Presidency. The letter requested permission to use the State House venue in Abuja on November 11, 2026, for the inauguration of Sowore’s campaign council.
The AAC argued that its request was grounded in equal access and non-partisan fairness, citing similar access granted to the ruling party.
Appearing on Channels Television’s evening news programme, Politics Today, hosted by Seun Okinbaloye on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, APC National Secretary Senator Ajibola Basiru dismissed the request and mocked Sowore’s political standing.
”Sowore is a skit maker. You know he is my friend. All of us were in the trenches in the students union,” Basiru said. “He’s a skit maker. He knew that would not happen. Let him struggle to even get a seat in the House of Assembly as a political party, then people will begin to take him serious.”
Basiru added; “Even rejected ballot papers had more votes than his party in the 2023 election… So he is just making skits. If I see him, I will tell him, ‘Sowore, you are just a comedian.'”
Sowore responded early Thursday morning, October 22, 2026, via a public statement posted on X (formerly Twitter). Rebuking the APC chieftain, Sowore invoked their shared past as student union activists confronting military dictatorship in the 1990s.
He alleged that he and other student leaders at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) helped create an enabling environment for Basiru to gain law admission after his expulsion from the University of Ilorin.
”The struggle for freedom is not comedy. What is truly comical is watching yesterday’s beneficiaries of resistance become today’s defenders of the very oppression they once fought against,” Sowore stated.
Sowore added; “Political appointments are temporary. Tinubu’s regime will come and go, just like the military regimes we confronted in our youth. Our commitment to justice has endured for decades and will outlast his present political appointment.”
In a follow-up post on X later Thursday morning, Senator Basiru pushed back against Sowore’s account of his university admission:
”Yele, you are outrightly dishonest… I did not have any relationship with you before I got admitted to the University of Lagos. In fact, I got 310 in my UTME exam to gain admission… So I was admitted on merit,” Basiru wrote.
Reaffirming his earlier assessment, Basiru added;”I honestly mean my statement that you are a comedian as I do not believe you yourself believe you have any chance in winning the contest for president of Nigeria… Leave your sanctimonious harangue to the unsuspecting young people you are lying to that you are a revolutionary or freedom fighter.”
