Activist and spoken word poet Willie Oeba has strongly denied claims that his activism is funded by powerful individuals or non-governmental organisations.
Speaking during a popular YouTube podcast on July 4, Oeba dismissed the allegations as propaganda aimed at discrediting activists and distracting the public from the government’s failure to address critical issues. He described the accusations as a desperate move by state actors to tarnish genuine grassroots efforts and avoid accountability.
“They are the last kicks of a dying horse. They are using propaganda to solve a real problem other than bridging the gap between what is real and what is possible and giving people hope and doing what people are saying. They are using propaganda; it is very desperate of them,” Oeba said.
Oeba maintained that instead of responding to the concerns raised by citizens—such as police brutality, corruption, and poor governance—the government resorts to deflection through baseless claims. He termed the recent propaganda efforts as attempts to undermine the legitimacy of the protests and those involved in them.
He also refuted claims that the recent wave of demonstrations was influenced or financed by Western entities or NGOs, insisting that the protests have been entirely organic, driven by frustration over real and unaddressed social injustices. According to him, the government is always looking for a narrative to exploit in order to shift blame and silence dissent.
Reason behind the protests
Oeba emphasised that people are in the streets because of state violence, extrajudicial killings, and systemic corruption, not because of foreign influence. He said the protests persist because the government fails to provide meaningful solutions, relying instead on propaganda to weaken the message while doing nothing to fix the root problems.
“People are out in the streets because of extrajudicial killings; they are out in the streets because of police brutality. They use propaganda to pacify the message, but they don’t solve the problems, and that is why we still have a youth bulge even in 2025,” he added.
He concluded by expressing disbelief at the personal attacks made against him, saying he often wonders if the version of him described in such narratives even exists, given how far removed it is from the reality of his work on the ground.
