The Cable
Dele Momodu, journalist and publisher of Ovation Magazine, says he never asked anyone to vote for President Muhammadu Buhari and did not campaign for his presidency.
Momodu said this in an interview with Chude Jideonwo.
Speaking on the Buhari government, he said: “I actually like the man personally but his politics, no way”.
He also denied allegations that he promoted Buhari’s campaign for the presidency.
“I didn’t sell Buhari to you. All I did was post his pictures. There is no way anyone can say, I said you must go and vote for Buhari,” he said.
“The mess in Nigeria today is because Nigerians find it difficult to detach themselves from career politicians.
“But Nigeria cannot continue in this madness. Why we lack progress is because we are too embittered, too enraged it is unbelievable.”
Momodu, who fled from the government of Sani Abacha, former military head of state, said he had just secured an office space close to the Canary Wharf in London for his magazine when a blast happened.
He said he thought the military leader had found his location in the United Kingdom.
“Nobody would ever imagine that you would have £20,000, you’ve spent £14,000, yet you haven’t bought furniture or anything,” Momodu said.
“Even my bank manager, a white lady at the National Westminster bank said, ‘Dele look at me I’m not being racist, but I don’t see how you’re going to do it.
“I went to her to see if she would give us a loan, she said no, I can’t give you a loan because you don’t have any record of doing business in the UK.
“But as Nigerians, we are resilient. So we got an office and second-hand furniture. So we decided to get a bottle of Cognac and celebrate because we got an office not minding how we were going to pay printers.
“Then boom! There was a bomb next to our building. A massive explosion with over 100 houses blown apart.
“We started running, and I started shouting Abacha! Abacha!.
“I thought Abacha had discovered where I was. So we ran, and we saw police dogs everywhere. Apparently, they had evacuated the area, and we didn’t know because we were busy celebrating.
“But we were lucky the building was bombproof, and our building was able to withstand the impact.”
