A noted Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential hopeful, Bashorun Dele Momodu, is neither new to presidential run nor is he a political neophyte by all standards.
He once gave the presidency a good shot, and despite the result posted, has not been stifled by the unpleasant experience produced by that electoral adventure. He is back again on the turf, and this time – tougher, stronger and better – than he was some eleven years ago. A journalist, publisher of Ovation Magazine and socialite, Momodu is well-informed about the challenges of Nigeria and believes in his capacity to turn the tide in the overall interest of the country. From security to economy to the fight against graft, he seems to know where things went wrong and is ready to hit the ground running if given the opportunity to serve. These and more he shared with THISDAY in this presidential series interview. Excerpts:
In 2011, you ran for the presidency under the National Conscience Party (NCP), and you based your decision then on the fact that the NCP was the party for the masses and also because of the respect you had for the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi. Today, you are in the Peoples Democratic Party. These are two political parties with completely different ideologies and visions. How can you reconcile that?
Let me tell you the reality of elections, not just politics. I tell people that to be a good politician and win elections, you must be a good mathematician. The lesson I took away in 2011 was that it is practically impossible to win a national election on the platform of a local political party. It’s the reality. Go to America, Donald Trump could have run, with all his money, as an independent candidate. He didn’t do that. He realised that he needed the structure of a big political party, and that was why he joined the Republican Party. So, what I’ve done is to practicalise my experience by joining a national party and since I have already given up on the All Progressives Congress (APC), the only other place to go would be the PDP. If I still believed the APC was redeemable, I would have gone there. But the (APC) is irredeemable, so that is why I went to the PDP.
So, why do you want to be Nigeria’s president at this time?
The same reason I wanted to be in 2011. I was tired of complaining and lamenting like the biblical Jeremiah. If you were in Akure with us yesterday (last Wednesday), Chief Olu Falae said a lot of things about me, which he had never spoken about in public. I have always believed that I could join forces with other Nigerians to bring about good governance in Nigeria. I started the struggle from the University of Ife. In 1993, I supported the late Chief MKO Abiola; 1998/99, I supported Chief Olu Falae.
I’ve always been the rebel and I’ve always been an opposition man. A lot of people who know me think because of my relationship with people in the corridors of power, I will always be with them, no. I’ve always searched for good governance in Nigeria. Unfortunately, I never got one. So, on the eve of my 50th birthday in 2010, I decided that, enough of waiting, that if I think I am better than those who are doing it, then, I must go in and do it. I’ve never been even a councilor, so I’m not tainted in any way. All the people who have done it, we’ve seen their maximum capacity and their maximum capacity has come to nothing.
How serious are you about this presidential ambition, because some people believe some of the people who are vying now, including you, are doing so just to be remembered as former presidential candidates or former presidential aspirants?
Well, any time people say that, I feel insulted personally. If I was looking for being remembered as a former presidential candidate, I’m already one. I was a presidential candidate in 2011. So, what difference will it make? No matter what you say, even if I get to contest now, I had already become a former presidential candidate. That’s number one. Number two, those who are running, what do they have, apart from access to our money? As journalists, I tell you, we belittle ourselves. We don’t respect ourselves, and that is why nobody respects us.
People treat some of us as dregs of society. I am a serious aspirant; I’ve always been serious about any project I go into.
As I said before this interview, Nduka Obaigbena would not have called me in 1992 to tell me he was starting Leaders & Company and he wants me to be the founding editor if I wasn’t a serious person; he would not have taken me on several trips globally if I wasn’t a serious person. Chief MKO Abiola would not have been taking me, travelling with him on important assignments if I wasn’t a serious person. Can you imagine how important I was to MKO Abiola in 1993 and I didn’t have Ovation then. So, I’ve been in the system. I started politics at the age of 22 but the only thing is that I never contested.
When people say it’s just for me to be remembered as a former presidential candidate or a former presidential aspirant, I laugh. So, you mean I will pay N40 million for nothing? Do you think I make that kind of easy money? I know how I sweated to pay that money. I was the only aspirant, who complained publicly about the N40 million, all of the other people paid it without a whimper, because they had access to government resources. No matter how clean all other aspirants are, at least, they have all passed through government , apart from me and maybe Sam Ohuabunwa, that have not passed through any government.
There are others who also believe that, because you have not held any political or public office before, that it might count against you in this race. Don’t you think so?
How can it count against me? Did Chief MKO Abiola have political office before he contested? Did Donald Trump have any political office before? How much political office did Obama have? The present president of Ukraine, what political office did he ever hold? The 36-year-old in Chile, which political office did he hold? Nigeria is the only place where we make a fetish of experience in politics before power. That is why we are in this mess. Leadership is by managing people and resources. It’s not about how many public portfolios you have held. For as long as we refuse to disabuse our minds about that, Nigeria is going nowhere. You can see now that governance has frozen in Nigeria, nothing is happening, and they are all spending the resources of the state just because they want to grab power at the centre.
It’s unfortunate that Nigerians are watching. That was why a lot of people were excited yesterday (last Wednesday) when President Muhammadu said ‘no, enough of this nonsense, if you want to run for elective office, don’t be a minister and pay N100 million. Where did you get the money from?’ If I ask you to name 18 out of the 36 governors in Nigeria today, you will struggle. If I ask you what the 18 people did before becoming governors, you will not remember. If you and I were lawyers, by now, we would be at the level of the Senior Advocate. So, it’s an insult for anybody to tell you that Dele Momodu is not serious, when all our founding fathers namely, Awolowo, Azikiwe, Ernest Okoli, the Enahoros had a journalism background. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana had a journalism background. Many of them were writers, so many of them.
Nigeria is the only place we disrespect ourselves. The best people to run a country are the conscience of the nation. We (journalists) are the conscience of the nation. In the last 30 years, nobody has written more about Nigeria and provided solutions about Nigeria than Dele Momodu. So, it’s an insult and it’s unfortunate that anybody will say that Dele Momodu is not serious. At my age? I will be 62 in the coming days and we have seen people in their 30’s running countries that are bigger than Nigeria.
The people, whose only exposure is the security votes, who are not even able to pay salaries are the same people that want to be your president and that’s not an insult to you? We should feel insulted that those who have failed are being promoted by the media to go to higher office because they have money. Is that how to run a country? Those who mismanaged businesses, those who failed in business, are qualified to be anything in Nigeria except those of us, who are working very hard for every kobo. We have to try and get serious about this business of politics, it’s very important.
If you were to outline Nigeria’s challenges, what would you say are the major problems you will tackle, when you become president?
The very first one is the issue of the lack of unity – the division. Buhari has taken us back virtually to the era of the civil war. But for the prayers and determination of Nigerians, Nigeria would have collapsed. He drove us to the brink. I was one of those who supported him voluntarily. I wasn’t a member of APC, I’ve never been a member of APC, because I felt PDP was fumbling after 16 years. So, I was one of those who supported him and when I realised that he was derailing, I was also very swift in drawing his attention to it. I started writing open letters and on one occasion, he invited me.
He said Dele, what’s the problem? And I told him my mind. I took to him a compilation of my work. I told him I had been a special adviser to presidents but that they were not listening to me. I was a voluntary special adviser, and he was happy that I spoke to him. He even asked me to autograph my book. I gave it to him. I’m a patriotic Nigerian; I don’t care if I disagree with you. I will render unto Caesar the things that belong to Caesar. So, talking about what to tackle when I become president, the first is, you cannot give what you don’t have. If you say, when I get there, I’m going to unite Nigeria, so give us the specifics of what you have done in the past to unite Nigeria, and I will give you mine. There is no part of Nigeria that I don’t have friends in, whether you are in PDP, APC or any other political party.
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