Sowore Condemns Nigeria’s Safety Failures After Anthony Joshua Accident
•By Admin
LAGOS – FORMER Presidential candidate and activist, Omoyele Sowore, has said Nigeria’s deep-rooted institutional failures were laid bare by the tragic road accident involving international boxing star, Anthony Joshua, which claimed the lives of some of the boxer’s associates.
In a statement posted on his Facebook page on Tuesday, Sowore said the incident should not be reduced to a celebration of Joshua’s survival, stressing that the lives lost deserved equal attention and justice.
According to him, the widespread attention generated by the accident due to Joshua’s global status should serve as a moment of national reckoning rather than public gloating.
“These kinds of fatal accidents are the daily, naked reality of a nation that has failed in small things and in big ones alike,”
Sowore stated.
He lamented the poor state of emergency response in the country, accusing road safety agencies and the police of lacking basic first-aid capacity, functional ambulances, and effective rescue systems.
“A country where there are no stretchers, no functional ambulances, and certainly no air ambulances. Where people die not only from accidents, but from institutional neglect,” he said.
Sowore argued that the tragedy underscored the urgent need for a fundamental transformation rooted in competence, dignity, and respect for human life.
The activist also took a swipe at Anthony Joshua’s past associations with Nigerian political leaders, saying he had previously warned the boxer against aligning with what he described as “rotten leadership.”
“I must still insist that Anthony Joshua stop genuflecting at the altars of those who have failed Nigeria so catastrophically.
Icons must not lend legitimacy to dysfunction,” Sowore said.
He concluded by offering condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in the accident, insisting that their deaths should not be treated as mere footnotes in the survival of a celebrity.
“My sincere condolences go to the families of the deceased. Their lives mattered, and they deserved far better than this broken system,” he added.