African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore has criticised All Progressives Congress (APC) National Secretary Ajibola Basiru, accusing him of abandoning the pro-democracy struggle that helped shape his early political life.

Sowore made the remarks in a post on X on Thursday, responding to Basiru’s description of him as a skit maker and comedian during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday.

In his response, Sowore claimed he helped Basiru secure admission to the University of Lagos (UNILAG) after his expulsion from the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) in 1992 over student activism.

To support his account, Sowore shared a photograph taken with Basiru in 1998, when he was leading the Congress of Progressive Youths (COPY) in opposition to military rule.

Sowore said he received Basiru and Kunle Adegoke, popularly known as K-Rad and now a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, at UNILAG. He added that they were given support to re-enter university and study law.

According to Sowore, both men went on to graduate with excellent results.

He also rejected Basiru’s argument that those who contested against President Bola Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election should be ashamed of their defeat because the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu the winner.

Sowore maintained that the pursuit of justice, democracy and freedom should not be dismissed as comedy.

“The struggle for justice, democracy, freedom and the preservation of human dignity is neither skit-making nor comedy,” he said, adding that Basiru had once participated in the same struggle and benefited from the solidarity of activists who opposed military rule.

The AAC candidate further argued that political appointments were temporary, predicting that Tinubu’s administration would eventually leave office, just as the military regimes they opposed in their youth had ended.

“What is truly comical is watching yesterday’s beneficiaries of resistance become today’s defenders of the very oppression they once fought against,” Sowore added.