{"id":68077,"date":"2025-06-14T22:52:50","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T22:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=68077"},"modified":"2025-06-14T22:52:50","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T22:52:50","slug":"sowore-vows-to-reject-tinubus-national-honour-threatens-legal-action-for-defamation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/06\/14\/sowore-vows-to-reject-tinubus-national-honour-threatens-legal-action-for-defamation\/","title":{"rendered":"Sowore Vows to Reject Tinubu\u2019s National Honour, Threatens Legal Action for Defamation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Onilede Titi Faith<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>During the 2025 Democracy Day celebrations on June 12, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu released a list of national honorees recognized for their contributions to Nigeria\u2019s development and democracy.<\/p>\n<p>Among those honored were: Kudirat Abiola (CFR) ,Posthumously recognized for her pro-democracy activism.<\/p>\n<p>Ken Saro-Wiwa (CON), Honored posthumously for his environmental advocacy.<\/p>\n<p>Wole Soyinka (GCON), Celebrated for his literary and intellectual contributions.<\/p>\n<p>While the list sparked public debate and speculation over possible recipients, activist and publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, swiftly distanced himself from any potential association with the awards.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement posted on his social media platforms, Sowore strongly rejected the idea of being linked to the Tinubu-led administration or any national honour it might confer on him.<\/p>\n<p>He wrote: \u201cIf I were mistakenly included by Tinubu on his \u2018National Award\u2019 list, I would not only reject and denounce the award but also take definitive legal action for defamation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sowore, a longtime critic of the Nigerian government and former presidential candidate, emphasized that he would never accept recognition from an administration he accuses of undermining democratic values.<\/p>\n<p>His reaction reflects growing tensions between the government and outspoken civil society voices amid ongoing discussions about governance, transparency, and national recognition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Onilede Titi Faith During the 2025 Democracy Day celebrations on June 12, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu released a list of national honorees recognized for their contributions to Nigeria\u2019s development and democracy. Among those honored were: Kudirat Abiola (CFR) ,Posthumously recognized for her pro-democracy activism. Ken Saro-Wiwa (CON), Honored posthumously for his environmental advocacy. Wole [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":68078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68079,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68077\/revisions\/68079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}