Corrupt Politicians Have Hacked Our Website Many Times —Sowore, Founder of SaharaReporters
Publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, in an online interview with TEMITAYO FAMUTIMI, speaks on the challenges he faces in far away United States.
What was your background like?
I am a Yoruba-speaking Ijaw person from Kiribo town in Ese-Odo Local Government area of Ondo State. We are known and referred to as “Ijaw-Apoi” in the Niger Delta region. I studied Geography and Regional Planning at the University of Lagos and later obtained a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Columbia University in New York.
What spurred you into becoming a citizen journalist?
The independent media movement in the US was my early inspiration. I saw ordinary citizens reporting on the protests in Seattle, Washington, where a meeting of the World Trade Organisation was taking place. I
knew from that moment that I wanted to become a citizen journalist too.
I started writing articles for some Nigerian websites and later began independent research into offshore corruption by Nigerian officials. I was surprised at how much information was publicly available about these officials, including lists of assets, ownership of properties, their divorce records and even multiple citizenships. However, I had no idea how to publish them.
What challenges did you face while starting Sahara Reporters and how did you overcome them?
There were lots of challenges. I think the most serious one at first was public skepticism and disbelief. We were derided and ridiculed for starting something many claimed we were not qualified to do. And then, I was starting something in a country – the USA – that is merciless with people who experiment with novel ideas or idealistic projects when they should be doing time-tested, practical things to earn enough money to pay their bills. However, I could not have lasted more than a few months if I started this website in Nigeria because it is totally dependent on technology, electricity and a constant Internet supply.
Where do you operate from?
I operate from anywhere there is Internet. Until recently, it was difficult to get connected to the Internet during flights and while riding in underground trains in New York City. I believe all that is changing very fast. Most airliners now have in-flight interconnectivity within the US. But I do have a physical office in New York City. I started Sahara Reporters with an HP laptop bought on e-Bay. In 1995, it took $20,000 and a huge office space to store 20 gigabyte of data, but now one terabyte can fit into your breast pocket. People are now shooting movies with cell phones. No fancy offices are required! The world of computing has migrated to the clouds.
How long did it take you to start attracting visitors to Sahara Reporters website?
Sahara Reporters started attracting traffic from day one. I believe people were hungry for our type of news and many Nigerians waited patiently for me to start something new. Most of these early supporters have since continued to follow me everywhere. Now, we have an Internet TV station and recently started an Internet Radio station.
Which story brought Sahara Reporters to the limelight?
Every story we did brought us greater and better visibility and a good share of the mass media space and traffic. What people were judging, though, were those stories that were picked up by BBC and CNN. But we’ve been doing major stories since 2006. We did the consistent and significant reports on former Governor James Ibori’s corruption, the health woes of the late President Musa Yar’Adua, the rigging of a series of presidential and other elections, the deep rot in the Nigerian judiciary, the Niger Delta insurgency – among others. We also led in covering the first attack on Boko Haram leaders. We obtained the first video showing that the Nigerian troops had lied when they claimed Boko Haram leader, Muhammed Yusuf, died in a shootout.
How profitable has citizen journalism become for you?
Some people live a profitable life out of it, but it was never my desire or intention. A decent living in my view is any form of living that enables me to be an agent of positive change in any society, but primarily in my original society, Nigeria. I understand that our current cultural conditions have reduced our existence to instantaneous wealth, but I don’t subscribe to such mental and physical devaluation of human existence. I have always been content with what makes it possible for me to wake up in the morning and do that which my conscience tells me is right.
Have you ever been threatened as a result of your stories?
We have been threatened several times — including by Boko Haram. We have faced numerous legal threats by entities whose objective was to eviscerate our website. And, yes, we have faced direct governmental threats. There have been numerous attacks on our website, including some directed at the larger edifice of our hosts. These attacks amount to attempts to technologically “murder” our website.
What profession were you into before becoming a citizen journalist? Are you still in that profession?
I never took to any conventional profession in life. I have mostly been an activist, which is a calling (apologies to priests). I had toyed with the idea of becoming a hydrologist, a regional planner and public administrator by taking courses in those conventional areas of life. Never practiced one. However, I have also been a visiting university teacher in New York. Each Fall semester, I teach a class on “Post-colonial African” history at a university in New York City. I have been teaching since the Fall of 2009.
