Sowore vs Basiru: Who Really Owns Aso Rock?

Omoyele Sowore has dared President Bola Tinubu to prove that Aso Rock is not a partisan property. The AAC candidate went on Arise Television yesterday and asked a question that should unsettle every Nigerian: if the APC can use the Presidential Villa for meetings, launches, and even weddings, why can't the opposition use it for a campaign inauguration?

Let me be clear about what is happening here. The APC National Secretary, Ajibola Basiru, dismissed Sowore as a "skit maker" instead of addressing the substance. That is the classic Nigerian political response when you have no legal leg to stand on. Sowore's request is simple: his party wrote to President Tinubu asking to use Aso Rock for the inauguration of its Presidential Campaign Council on November 11, 2026, with food and logistics for 5,000 guests. The APC's response was to mock him, not to explain why the Villa is suddenly a private banquet hall for one party.

I am not an AAC member, and I have my own reservations about Sowore's politics. But the principle he is testing is bigger than any candidate. Aso Rock is public property, funded by our taxes. If the ruling party can host political events there with catering and security, then the opposition has the same right. Sowore even offered to pay, provided the APC can produce receipts for all the times they used the banquet hall. That is the kind of receipt politics we should be demanding from every government, not just this one. So let me ask you: is Basiru's "skit maker" insult a legal argument or just a convenient distraction?