The National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Senator Ajibola Basiru, and the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, have exchanged words after the APC chieftain described the activist as a “skit maker” and “comedian”.

The exchange followed the AAC’s request to inaugurate its presidential campaign council at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, prompting Basiru to question Sowore’s political relevance.

The AAC made the request in a letter dated October 21, 2026, addressed to the President and signed by its National Secretary, Oshiokhai Ikpeminioghena.

In the letter, titled “Request for Approval to Hold the Inauguration of the AAC Presidential Campaign Council at the Presidential Villa and for Logistical Support,” the party also requested food, drinks and other logistical support for participants at the proposed event scheduled for November 11, 2026.

Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, Basiru said Sowore should first demonstrate his electoral strength at the state level before expecting to be taken seriously.

“Sowore is a skit maker. You know he’s my friend. All of us were in the trenches as a student union. He’s a skit maker. He knows that wouldn’t happen.

“Let him struggle to even get a seat in the House of Assembly as a politician, and then people will begin to take him seriously.

“Even rejected ballot papers had more votes than his party in the 2023 election. So that means that a rejected ballot paper is more popular than his party, so he’s just making skits.

“He is even a top contender. When I see him, I would tell him that he’s just a comedian. He’s not serious about the presidential race,” Basiru said.

Sowore, reacting to the remarks in a post on his X handle on Wednesday night, recalled his relationship with Basiru during their student activism days in the 1990s, when both opposed military dictatorship.

The presidential candidate said he watched the interview during which Basiru described him as a “skit maker” and “comedian”.

He accompanied his response with a photograph he said he took with Basiru in 1998, when he led the Congress of Progressive Youths.

“I am presenting here a photograph I took with Ajibola in 1998, when I led the Congress of Progressive Youths (COPY), and we were both in the trenches fighting against military dictatorship,” Sowore wrote.

He added that the eventual fate of COPY provided an early indication of Basiru’s political transformation but said he would reserve further comments on the matter.

Sowore also faulted Basiru’s argument that the outcome of the 2023 presidential election should make opposition candidates ashamed of their defeat.

“His premise is that because Bola Ahmed Tinubu was declared ‘winner’ by INEC in the deeply flawed 2023 presidential election, those of us who contested against him should somehow be ashamed of losing,” he said.

The activist further recalled that he helped Basiru and Kunle Adegoke, popularly known as K-Rad, who is now a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, and provided an enabling environment for them to gain admission to study law at the institution after Basiru’s ordeal at the University of Ilorin in 1992 over student activism before seeking readmission to the University of Lagos.

He said both men eventually graduated and went on to achieve professional success.

Defending his activism, Sowore said the struggle for democracy and human rights should not be dismissed as entertainment.

“The struggle for justice, democracy, freedom and the preservation of human dignity is neither skit-making nor comedy,” he said.

Sowore accused Basiru of abandoning the principles they once upheld in opposing military rule, attributing the change to the privileges associated with his current political position.

“It is unfortunate that he has become so carried away by the fleeting privileges of his current political position that he now ridicules the very struggle that helped shape his own future,” he added.

He also warned that political appointments were temporary and that the Tinubu administration would eventually leave office.

“Political appointments are temporary. Tinubu’s regime will come and go, just like the military regimes we confronted in our youth,” Sowore said.

He maintained that the principles they fought for decades ago remained relevant, adding that his commitment to justice would outlast Basiru’s current position.

“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,” he said.