What was I doing all that for at that time? I wanted to leave a legacy at the University of Lagos that I could sacrifice my life to protect others who needed a future.
The Department of State Services on Saturday arrested Omoyele Sowore, activist and opponent of President Muhammadu Buhari in the last presidential election in Nigeria.
But the pro-democracy activist had long envisaged that the Buhari government would move against him months ago.
Sowore had said, in Ibadan during a campaign rally held at the University of Ibadan's International Conference Centre, he knew that the All Progressives Congress-led government would come after him for daring to challenge the malfeasance in the system.
The activist was one of the many brave Nigerians who confronted the military junta during his days at the University of Lagos.
"What was I doing all that for at that time? I wanted to leave a legacy at the University of Lagos that I could sacrifice my life to protect others who needed a future.
"I have brought myself out again and this is very instructive, listen to it: they are going to come after me. There is no question about it. But it is too late now.
"Like Martin Luther King said, I have been to the mountain top and I have seen the promised land. It doesn't matter what happens to me now."
Sowore has been a vocal activist since his university days, elected at one point as the institution's Students Union Government's president.
He was arrested and jailed by the military junta because of his unsparing criticisms of the military apparatus.
Sowore, after years of suspension by the school authorities, graduated from Unilag. He then went to the United States of America to bag a master's degree at Columbia University.
He later joined partisan politics in 2019 when he contested the office of the president of Nigeria on the platform of the Africa Action Congress (AAC).
After his defeat at the poll, he promised to continue on his path of holding government accountable and seeking a better Nigeria.