OPINION: THE DATA BOY AND THE LION

OPINION: THE DATA BOY AND THE LION

BY: Ayodele Samuel Bishop

There is something deeply comic, almost Shakespearean in its absurdity, about Lere Olayinka attempting to take on Omoyele Sowore. It is like watching a court jester hurling pebbles at a lion, expecting the beast to flinch. The lion, of course, yawns in indifference, for why should majesty stoop to the antics of a fool?
Lere’s only real encounter with power was not heroic, not even passable. It was humiliating, lying flat on the floor, begging the police for his life after inciting teachers against a competency test. That singular moment defines him, a man of loud talk but weak knees, an empty vessel amplified only by the echo chamber of social media.

Sowore, on the other hand, has lived a life steeped in struggle and sacrifice. He has stared down dictators, endured prison walls, survived bullets and batons, and still emerged unbroken. His courage is legendary, his fearlessness unsettling even to those who wield the instruments of state power. Politicians, soldiers, DSS operatives, they all know his name not as a whisper, but as a warning.

So when Lere, the self-acclaimed “data boy,” dares to bark at Sowore, it is not an act of bravery but of misplaced comedy. For history will remember Sowore as a symbol of courage and incorruptibility. Lere will be remembered, if at all, as the man who mistook crumbs for a feast and servitude for relevance.

In the end, it is no contest, one is a lion, the other a lapdog. And we all know what happens when a lapdog barks at a lion, the jungle does not tremble.