Omoyele Sowore, detained in Nigeria for five years, is returning to Haworth

A Nigerian man this week asked the government there to renew his passport so he could book a flight to New Jersey.

This might not seem like such a momentous event. But in the life of Omoyele Sowore, it was a major step to freedom after nearly five years in legal and political limbo.

Sowore, a Nigerian citizen and political activist and journalist, who lived with his wife and son and daughter in the tiny hamlet of Haworth, has been detained by Nigerian authorities since he was arrested in August 2019 after he returned to his homeland and led anti-government protests.

But Sowore, who turned 53 last week, may finally be coming back to America ― and to his wife and teenage son and teenage daughter he has seen only on video calls since his detention in Nigeria.

After an unexpected flurry of court hearings and legal decisions last week, the Nigerian government dropped all charges against Sowore. Late Friday, Sowore confirmed to The Record and NorthJersey.com that he received his new Nigerian passport. As soon as he receives a U.S. visa and updated legal residency “green card,” Sowore will be free to return to America and his family. All he will need then, he said, is a ticket on a commercial airliner.

“I just want to see my wife and kids and hug them,” Sowore told The Record and NorthJersey.com when reached by telephone in Nigeria.

The U.S. embassy in Nigeria is reportedly expediting approval of Sowore’s U.S. visa and “green card.”  Back in Washington, D.C., the U.S. State Department told The Record and NorthJersey.com that “we welcome the decision” by Nigeria’s justice department to “discontinue the case” against Sowore.

The plight of the Nigerian activist from suburban Haworth is as much a story of the often-unpredictable ups and downs of international politics as an old-fashioned tale about how a small town with only 3,400 residents came to support a family in need.

In the middle was Sowore. He traveled back to his homeland in the summer of 2019 and quickly angered Nigeria's political establishment by running for the nation’s presidency.

Sowore's campaign, while unsuccessful, nevertheless aimed to draw attention to what he saw as increasing dishonesty and authoritarianism in his homeland. "I really ran to win and defeat the old guards versed in corruption and incompetence," he told The Record and NorthJesey.com. "It was a campaign aimed at turning Nigeria around and engendering an era of abundance, social justice and economic prosperity."

After protesting election results, Sowore was thrown in jail.

Back in Haworth, concern among residents mounted over Sowore’s safety.

“Haworth doesn’t have a lot of intrigue, but it does believe in its own sense of community,” said the borough's mayor, Heather Wasser.

Sowore’s wife, Opeyemi Oluwole-Sowore, credited the town’s support with helping her family get through the ordeal.

“My entire community leaned in,” said Opeyemi, 50, a health care technology marketing executive.  “They’ve been there for the past five years. Many of them I didn’t know but many are my close friends now.”

Soon after Omoyele Sowore’s arrest in August 2019, dozens of Haworth residents gathered for a vigil to express support for him and his family. Within days, residents began wrapping yellow ribbons around many trees throughout the town ― a symbolic gesture to draw attention to what they felt was Sowore’s unjust arrest.

The town referred to the ribbons on trees as “Tie a Yele Ribbon” – a reference to Sowore’s nickname, “Yele,” and to the 1973 hit song, "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree," by the pop-singing group, Tony Orlando and Dawn.

Residents also attended protests at the United Nations and lobbied government officials. And as a regular feature at Sunday Masses each week at Sacred Heart Church, where Sowore’s family worshipped, a special prayer was offered for his freedom.

The increased focus seemed to work.  It soon drew the attention of the U.S. State Department, the American Bar Association and the Committee to Protect Journalists, as well as such progressive lobbying groups as the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation and the George Clooney Foundation for Justice.

American diplomats from the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria started showing up at Sowore’s court hearings. They met with Nigerian officials and, according to a State Department spokesman in Washington, “publicly expressed concern about his detention.”

But the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and 2021 derailed efforts to bring Sowore back to America. Diplomatic efforts stalled, then seemed to slip into limbo. Amid the focus on the COVID pandemic, the focus on Sowore's plight seemed less intense.

"It was surreal," Sowore told The Record and NorthJersey.com.

Two years passed. Then came a change in the Nigerian presidency and a renewed chance to gain Sowore's freedom.

Sowore emerged two decades ago as a prominent critic of Nigeria’s authoritarian government when he founded the “Sahara Reporters” news website in a small New York City apartment. Many articles on the website detailed the widespread corruption of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, a former army general whose autocratic style of rule was often overlooked by U.S. authorities who valued instead his strong stance against African-based terrorism.

Buhari, now 81, left office last May. Nigeria’s new president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, signaled that he was open to freeing Sowore.

Still it took another nine months to drop the case against Sowore.  Besides being charged with trying to overthrow the government, Sowore had been accused of treason, money laundering and cyberstalking.

The cyberstalking allegation stemmed from Sowore’s journalistic investigation of President Buhari. The other charges were viewed as trumped up accusations tied to Sowore’s years of anti-government activism.

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Still, if convicted, Sowore could have been sentenced to prison for years.

“Nigeria is one of those countries where journalists don’t get justice,” said Angela Quintal, a South African journalist and Africa Coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Over time, Quintal said, Nigeria’s political establishment came to regard the outspoken and charismatic Sowore as a rival.

“No doubt it had everything to do with the fact that he was an activist, a journalist, someone who appeals to the youth,” Quintal said in an interview. “Obviously, the old guard is going to see that as a threat.”

While U.S. officials criticized Nigerian authorities for detaining Sowore, they were limited in what they could do because Sowore was only a legal resident of the United States, not a citizen.

Back in Haworth, residents saw Sowore’s detention as unjust.

“People in the town were genuinely concerned,” said the Rev. Robert Wolfee, the pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic Church.  “Whether they knew the family personally, a lot of people saw it as a miscarriage of justice. He was a political prisoner, not a criminal. I don’t think anybody expected this to drag out this long.”

“We were very concerned for ‘Ope’ and the kids,” said Haworth resident Alison Osder, referring to Sowore’s wife, Opeyemi, by her nickname.

Osder joined an informal group of women who regularly visited the Sowore home or kept touch by phone with the family.

“For us, it was about supporting ‘Ope’ as another mom in town,” Osder said. “It blossomed from there.”

As delighted as Sowore and his family are with his impending freedom ― along with Haworth itself ― many acknowledge that much of the last five years have been especially difficult.

Sowore was first confined to a jail where he had to buy his own food.  He communicated with his family by a cellphone that was smuggled into the jail. Six months later, a judge gave him permission to live on his own in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. But he could not leave the city or hold a job. And he had to rent his own apartment, which he says was under 24-hour police surveillance.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, the Wyckoff, New Jersey Democrat whose district includes Haworth and who lobbied extensively with U.S. officials for Sowore’s release, credited Sowore’s own “positive outlook” in helping him endure his captivity.

“I can’t wait to give him a hug and a slice of pizza,” Gottheimer said.

Opeyemi Sowore lamented that her husband’s Nigerian detention caused him to miss some major family events that can never be replicated.

The couple’s daughter, Ayomide, is now 17 and a high school junior. She was just 12 when her father was detained in Nigeria. The couple’s son, Komi, is 14 and in eighth grade. He has not seen his father since he was 9.

During Sowore's confinement, his family could not visit him.

“He missed so many milestones,” Opeyemi said. “It’s the little moments, right? A phone call is not the same as having someone here.”

That may change soon.

Mike Kelly is an award-winning columnist for NorthJersey.com, part of the USA TODAY Network, as well as the author of three critically acclaimed nonfiction books and a podcast and documentary film producer. To get unlimited access to his insightful thoughts on how we live life in the Northeast, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: kellym@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Omoyele Sowore returning to NJ after detention Nigeria