No proof Buhari government is cutting cost – Dele Momodu

The Publisher of Ovation magazine, Dele Momodu, speaks about President Muhammadu Buhari’s government and other issues in this interview with ’NONYE BEN-NWANKWO and GBENRO ADEOYE

What is your view on the state of the country?

The state of the country now is a bit volatile. Don’t forget that a very strong political party was voted out of power last year, so naturally, the tension is still there. But my attitude to it is that the tension can be tackled by the government. There is nothing happening in Nigeria that has not happened elsewhere. In fact, we have had worse situations. In

Dele Momodu

South Africa, Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years and when he came out of prison, he could have prolonged the disunity and the tension but he was smart enough to know that the only thing that could bring about progress in a nation is an atmosphere of peace. So that is what I recommend but unfortunately, some people in Nigeria feel that the tension should continue and that we should fight to the finish. But I believe that I am a good student of history and my attitude is that every Nigerian, whether in the Peoples Democratic Party, the All Progressives Congress, the National Conscience Party, the Labour Party or whichever, must join hands with President Muhammadu Buhari to rescue Nigeria and he too must join hands with them.

Do you also feel that this government is slow and that nothing is really happening in spite of its promise of change?

I won’t use the word slow. I’d say we could do better. I’m not on the hot seat; I’m not the President of Nigeria, so there are things he would know that I don’t know. He would have access to more information than the ordinary man on the street. But I believe that Nigerians are very agitated at the moment. I’m seeing a lot of complaints on social media and all kinds of caricatures. You would think the government has been in power for four years. In less than one year, people are already abusing us. ‘You guys are idiots; you brought Buhari on us’, ‘Shame on all of you’. I don’t know if all of these are getting to the government but this is the feedback that we are getting. If you have been reading my articles in a national newspaper every Saturday, you must have seen that I’ve been reflecting that mood. What I know about government and power is that people (who are close to him) hardly tell the leader the truth. They tell him what they think he wants to hear; they tell him everything is under control. “Oh! Don’t mind the disgruntled elements.” In government, everybody is always disgruntled. This time last year, former President Goodluck Jonathan’s boys were busy abusing us thoroughly. There was nothing they didn’t say. But we knew we had to carry on with our mission, based on principle. I’m not a member of the APC or the PDP, but people don’t know. I was just a volunteer. Our generation, I believe, is different. These days, nobody thinks that anyone can do anything based on principles. They think it must be based on political affiliations, religious fraternity and so on. I’m just a Nigerian who wants Nigeria to be good. I’m already 55 years going on 56 and I’m just worried. When the Wole Soyinkas were describing their generation as a wasted generation, I was so sure that mine would not be wasted. But at this rate, if care is not taken, we have virtually joined that generation. No electricity, no water, bad roads, nothing. If you listened to Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s songs in the 70s and the early 80s, you can still replay the songs today and they will be relevant. The same old story! It is troubling for some of us, which is why I said we must join hands with Buhari because if he fails, we are in trouble. The President should also reach out to everybody; it does not matter whether you are a Christian or a Muslim or animist, whatever you are, we are all Nigerians at the end of the day.

Are you saying you could have done any better if you had been elected when you contested Presidency?

Me? Well, it is a matter of conjecture. The Yoruba have a saying: ‘Enu dun ro efo’ (It is easy and convenient to cook vegetable soup by mouth), so you never know until you get there. But if you asked me, naturally, the answer would be, ‘Yes, I would perform’. This is because there are basic lessons I’ve learnt, especially from the lives of some people like Chief Obafemi Awolowo- a life of service. What was the secret? He was able to assemble the best brains around, listen to them and act on whatever quality advice they gave him. Any leader who wants to succeed must do that. Your team must be able to reach you, have access to you, respect you but not be afraid of you to the extent that they cannot talk, take risks, take decisions.

Are you saying that Buhari’s ministers are afraid of him to that extent?

I wrote an article about that recently that Sir (Buhari), you need to free your ministers from this cage. What I see presently is a regime where ministers are afraid, maybe because they have not been able to get over Buhari’s first coming. But this is a democracy, so things must change. We cannot have a dictator. One of the ministers actually called me because I compared this cabinet to that of former President Goodluck Jonathan. In his time, say what you will, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was talking and reassuring the nation. You’d see her onAljazeera, CNN, defending Nigeria, their policy and so on. But that is not the case here. What we have now is a preponderance of media operatives for the government. Garba Shehu says his; Femi Adesina says his; and then you hear from the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed. There have been a cacophony of information but this information has not been able to coagulate to reassure Nigerians, who are rightly anxious, that things are okay. I wrote an article titled, ‘Buhari and the burden of expectation’. To whom much is given, much is expected. People saw Buhari as a magician, either rightly or wrongly. So they expect so much from him. So those who are getting angry and asking ‘why are people saying he should do this or that, he has just started? People expected what I call Talismanic results. So they expected him to perform miracles. I told him that Nigerians expect you to perform the miracle of Jesus Christ raising Lazarus from the dead because Nigeria was virtually comatose. So my mind has been oscillating between, ‘Are we fast enough?’ or ‘Are we too slow?’ I just believe that we should jazz up some things quickly and urgently because we don’t have the luxury of time. By May, a year would have been gone. We will enter the second year by May 29 and by the third year; politicians are already jostling for the next elections. So there will be no attention paid to governance again. Now, some people are already talking about 2019. In fact, part of the battle right now is about 2019 when we have not even passed the first budget. So the executive and the legislature must bury whatever differences they have and come together for the sake of Nigeria. The judiciary must assist but what I see now is a fight between the executive and the legislature. People are abusing the judiciary of being corrupt and if we bastardise all our institutions, there will be nothing left at the end of the day.

So are you one of those pleading for more time for this government?

I always tell people that leadership is not about politics but about managing people and resources. A leader must be ready to adjust accordingly. If you are not making enough money from oil, so what do you do? Agriculture is not an overnight thing but you can set things in motion. We should begin the process of making sure we move from a mono-economy to a diversified one. Two, Chief Moshood Abiola used to tell us that when you want to cut your coat, you look at the available material. If it can give you a three-piece suit, fine. But if it can’t, reduce it to a two-piece suit, and you don’t make it too wide. Right now, I’ve not seen any sign of austerity in Nigeria.  If you asked for my honest opinion, I think that Buhari should reflect austerity measure in Nigeria, especially in government. The bulk of our resources are going towards funding the politicians. I read last week that government officials should no longer fly first class. That is minor; anybody can fly anything. I fly a lot and I know how to get the best bargains. But you know in government, it is not like that. There would be an agent somewhere who is related to someone in government and he is the one writing tickets and he is writing the most expensive ones. So these are things that the government does not realise.

Do you think that the President should have pruned the size of the Presidential Air Fleet?

I think we have too many presidential jets right now; that is my opinion. I believe that we have too many and even Buhari himself had criticised that before he became the President. So I don’t know what they are waiting for. I think we are spending too much money flying round. Each time they fly, they tell me they have reduced the entourage but I don’t think so. I was in New York on my own but stayed in the same hotel with them last year July during the United Nations General Assembly and I could still see that a lot of the people were just roaming and roving around with nothing to do. I don’t see why the President should travel every time with a full entourage, especially for a country like ours. You may say that Tanzania is a small country but a broke country is also a poor country. We are very wealthy in terms of our resources and assets, but right now, we lack cash flow. So we have to show that we are serious. If my company is not making money, I can’t go and be spending money on expensive lifestyles. It’s about how you manage yourself and I don’t see that yet. We have returned to the days when people think government is about enjoyment.

Pruning the presidential air fleet was one of APC’s campaigns, so do you think all the other promises the party made were a mere gimmick to attain power?

I don’t know. There is a book I like to quote. It was written by a Brazilian author called Paulo Freire. It is titled, ‘Pedagogy of the oppressed’. There are two things I picked from the book. One is that the oppressed man respects and fears only one person- his oppressor. The second one, which is relevant to what I’m talking about, is that the oppressed man is waiting for an opportunity to become an oppressor. The only dream he has in his life is: I just want to be great. I want to get to power. But when he gets to power, the reality is different. President Buhari, I believe, is a man of modest means, humble, easy going, and I don’t think he is overtly crazy about money or primitive accumulation of wealth. I once described him as a man who is like Jesus Christ, but without disciples. If your followers don’t share in your philosophy, then everything will spiral out of control, which is what I think is happening in Nigeria.

Some people have attributed your open letter to President Buhari as a sign that you are still sulking for not being made a minister. Is that what it is about?

I know the number of people who were begging me to do everything possible to become a minister. And I told them: the only reason you want me to become a minister is so that I can go and steal on your behalf. You are not saying it because you think I’m qualified or because you love me. They told me it’s their own opportunity; that I worked for these people. And it got to a stage that even my wife said people did not allow her sleep; they would call her in the UK and say ‘Madam, talk to your husband, he is too arrogant and foolish. How can he work for Buhari so much and not get anything?’ If I was going there for service, nobody would worry me. So the mindset of an average Nigerian is still that government is the easiest way to make money. And with that kind of mindset, what can Buhari alone do?

Were you not disappointed that your name was not on the list of Buhari’s ministers?

No, I wasn’t disappointed. I actually wrote an article before the list came out on why I believed my name would not be there. People were circulating some names. But to start with, I’m not a member of their party. Anybody who wants to be a minister, an ambassador, the first prerequisite usually is to be a member of the political party. It is even almost a constitutional thing. Till today, I have never left my party, the NCP. So if I was desperate for an appointment, I would have left my party. Nobody would drive me away if I want to join the APC. As a matter of fact, my good friend, Rotimi Amaechi (Minister of Transportation), has asked me many times why I have not joined the APC. I said no, I’m not interested. I don’t know how people do it when they jump from party to party like frogs. Maybe it is because I come from a background of intellectualism. I was supposed to be a lecturer but I couldn’t get a job in the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) when I finished my Master’s degree in 1988. That was what brought me to Lagos. So I was already 28 years old by the time I arrived in Lagos in 1988. That ‘village boy’ mentality has not left me till today- ignore all the glamour. I am just who I am. I am happy contributing my quota to the development of my country. I’ve appointed myself as a global ambassador. I’ve been negotiating with rebels in Sierra Leone as far back as 2001. I would go there to visit our soldiers. You see, I read a lot and I’ve watched the lifestyles of the rich and famous elsewhere and I see how they contribute to their societies. You don’t have to be in government to contribute positively. Princess Diana used to go to Angola to campaign against land mines. You see Prince Harry going to Afghanistan to fight alongside British soldiers. Would you see the child of a Nigerian President or king ready to do all those things? That is me. But people don’t believe it because what they see is that he is the publisher of Ovation, he hobnobs with the rich and famous. Yet, I write my columns every Saturday and I’m able to tell President Buhari what nobody would tell him. I was able to write and tell Jonathan what nobody would tell him. When the late Umaru Yar’Adua cabal was holding Nigeria to ransom, I went on the street and I was not a member of the PDP and I never sat with Jonathan one on one. He is probably the only President in recent times that I never took pictures with. I’m just who I am. I’m more of a scholar. My dream is to return to the university and teach the young ones. All the experience that we have gathered should not be wasted.

Speaking of your open letter to the President, it is widely believed that it is when you are unable to get anything from the government in power that you start bad-mouthing it.

Was I a friend of Jonathan in power? I just told you that I went on the streets to fight for his right when he was being oppressed by the cabal. Did I go to them? If I was a friend of everyone in power, won’t I be a member of a big political party? People just talk. Fortunately for me, I learnt from MKO Abiola. When I came to Lagos in 1988, Abiola was probably the most hated Nigerian. Even when I was going to work in Concord Newspapers, it was because I couldn’t get a job in The Guardian. I had wanted The Guardian. When a friend suggestedConcord to me, I was reluctant to go there. I told him people said that Abiola was an Islamic fundamentalist; they said he was a millionaire fanatic. But I got to Concord and everything was different. We had a bush canteen in Concord where we could drink beer. Would you drink beer or smoke in an Islamic empire? People were smoking. So I have learnt from the lives of great people that people must talk about them. What matters is for you to be true to your beliefs, philosophy and principles. Go and check if there was any government that I didn’t know and I was bold enough to tell them the truth. The secret is that I don’t abuse people. When I write, I critique and I proffer solutions. Go and read my articles. When I met with President Buhari, I had a copy of my forthcoming book, which contained some of the articles I wrote in the last five years on Jonathan. I said ‘Sir, I appointed myself Special Adviser to the President and these are some of the things I wrote about him, but he didn’t listen’. I said I hope you won’t mind, I’m going to be playing the same role. I’ve not gone back to Buhari. When I went to see him, I was invited. Thereafter, I have never gone near the place. I’ve not met Lai Mohammed since he became the Information Minister, you would not believe it. And this is a man who has been my friend for over 20 years. I’ve not been to Amaechi’s office. We may have been together when he is in Lagos and in the same hotel or at a function. I don’t run around. Journalists are treated like poor specie in Nigeria; I respect myself. I’m older than most of the political actors on the stage today. And where I come from, we value seniority. If you don’t respect yourself, nobody is going to respect you. So when people talk and say you are defending this and that, I say I defend principle.

Were you paid by the former Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Maduekwe, to launder her image with the interview you recently had with her?

That is why some people will rather leave this life of activism because whether you do it or don’t it, people must abuse you. What did I do wrong with Diezani? This is a woman that every reasonable journalist in the world would love to interview. People interviewed Osama Bin Laden. If it was in Nigeria, people would say they paid you to promote terrorism. They would change the word reportage to promotion. That is what they do anytime because Dele is not supposed to be a poor person, he is a flamboyant man, so everything he does must be for financial considerations. What insult! I’m older than Diezani. Look, I’m the only one who knows how I gain access to people. When I contacted someone that I would like to speak to Diezani, the person told her and she said, ‘Ha, no no no, Dele is our enemy.’ That was the first thing she said and the person told me. I said I was nobody’s enemy; whatever she says is what I would reproduce. A journalist must be able to give his word. People are abusing me for interviewing Diezani; what crime have I committed? Did I write in the interview that Diezani did not steal money? Where did I write it? Did I write that Diezani was the best minister in Nigeria? What did I write? Just questions and answers! Is it true that you have cancer? I took pictures with my phone and they accused me of doctoring pictures.

People said you went out of your way to try to launder her image for money.

Oh! Are you also trying to launder my image now by talking to me? No! What are you doing here? If I interview James Ibori now, people will say that I’m trying to launder his image. Is Ibori not a human being? Does he not have a right to express himself? In fact, all the things we fought against under dictatorship are what we are preaching now. It is called censorship. People have gone on exile or to prison for censorship. I was a victim. That is why I go against censorship. If somebody kills my mother today and I have an opportunity to interview him, I will ask: why did you kill my mother? But Nigerians will say you are a bastard, how can you sit and talk with the person who killed your mother? They don’t understand that it is a job. That is the nature of the job.  There is no journalist who can be successful if he doesn’t have access to his subjects.

But we heard that you are being sponsored to write some of the things you write and that your open letter to Buhari was particularly sponsored by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Is that the case?

I haven’t heard that in recent time. Before, I used to hear that. When he was taken to the Code of Conduct Tribunal and I wrote in his support, some people who were his political enemies abused the hell out of me. But Tinubu is my big brother. We were comrades in exile. We have come a long way together. I fight against oppression. So did Jonathan pay me to go and demonstrate for him in Abuja? So Tinubu paid me to write that he was being victimised? Jonathan paid me to write that the cabal did not want to hand over power to him when it was obvious that the then President was not well. Some people called me a bastard for supporting Amaechi at the Senate, even to my face. I did not mind them, I carried on with my campaign. Some people are attacking me now for supporting Saraki. Why? Because I said we must resist the impunity of a man suddenly becoming a villain only when government is fighting him. And it happens every time, right from Obasanjo’s time. If a governor was not in support of Obasanjo, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission would go and pick him. I resisted it at that time. I wrote an open letter to Nuhu Ribadu that it was impunity and that it was not good to set fire on an entire village to catch a few rats. His guys came back at me seriously. I almost suedThis Day Newspaper because it was used to libel me for speaking the truth. But at the end of the day, Ribadu himself became a victim of impunity and he had to flee the country. So if they are fighting Tinubu, I don’t talk. They are fighting Saraki, I don’t talk. The day they come for me too, there will be nobody to talk.

No proof Buhari government is cutting cost – Dele Momodu

Momodu Flays Buhari Govt’s obsession with Jonathan

President Muhammad Buhari has been urged to build upon the concrete legacies of the immediate past administration led by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan instead of the endless blame-game and name-calling currently ravaging the nation.

Ovation publisher and columnist, Mr. Dele Momodu, made this statement in his article in his column, Pendulum, published in THISDAY Newspapers of this Saturday, titled:  “End the blame game now.”

According to him, “Buhari government is already getting paranoid and almost as neurotic as the Jonathan regime. Their reaction to every criticism suggests an unnecessary agitation. They are blaming real and imaginary enemies for the gale of attacks on the economic policies of the current government. I find this very reprehensible.”

He added: “If truth must be told, our economic team is floundering at the moment. They appear rudderless and totally confused. Did they expect anyone to praise them when the Naira is spinning and nose-diving at a dizzying pace like a rollercoaster gone berserk?

“Nigerians sent President Goodluck Jonathan packing because they believed he was incompetent and the APC and its candidate (Buhari) assured they had the solutions to the problems and the magic wand to the economic and spiritual hopelessness of the time. No one should blame them if they are grumbling that this was not the change they voted for.”

Momodu Flays Buhari Govt’s obsession with Jonathan

Nigerians are lamenting - Dele Momodu writes Buhari

Dele Momodu has written a memo to President Muhammadu Buhari asking him to as a matter of urgency fix Nigeria saying that Nigerians are lamenting that the change he promised is fast becoming a mirage and that Buhari’s style and methodology appear too slow.

Dele Momodu

He also went further to say that many mostly the oppotions want the government to fail saying that they were ‘skillfully setting the president up for failure in order to be able to taunt his supporters.’

Read the full memo bellow .

By Dele Momodu

Your Excellency, it’s been months since I wrote my desperate memo to you. I wish to thank you once more for reacting promptly and swiftly at that time and for giving me the honour and privilege of meeting you in your office. I remember presenting you a special compilation of my articles, especially the many admonitions to your immediate predecessor, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

After handing over the book to you, Sir, I promised to continue acting in my self-appointed capacity as Special Adviser because of the need to tell you what those very close to you might not be able to say. They might be afraid of you and your reaction.

The truth is you are a plain and simple man imbued with a mission and a passion to save this great country but you cannot do it on your own. You can only do it if people close to you, who should be advising you, tell you as it is so that you can do that which you were elected to do.

Sir, it is on the above basis that I’m back today for reasons some of which you probably know already from your own personal observations and readings. But before I go further, kindly permit me to set some records straight before some conspiracy specialists step forward to ascribe other people’s opinion to me. I shall clearly expose my personal views and state where I belong or stand for any avoidance of doubt. Everywhere I go people refer to me as Buhari’s man and ask “what’s your Baba doing ooo?”. I seriously have no problem with that. I’m proud that I joined so many other Nigerians as well as foreign friends in supporting a man of impeccable pedigree and solid integrity. No matter your view of President Muhammadu Buhari, one thing his bitterest enemies give to him is the fact that he is way above the level of most mortals in matters of uprightness.

This is why many of us volunteered to scream your name to high heavens and we were ready to follow you to Golgotha. Many of your opponents have not gotten over the thrashing you gave them and would forever seek everything and anything to smear you with. It is therefore not surprising that there has been so much noise about what you’ve done or left undone. Whether they are right or wrong in their assessment, I feel it is right and proper to let you know what people are saying about you including your most ardent fans and supporters. Sir, please, let’s not dismiss them as mere rabble-rousers. A groundswell of public opinion can easily metamorphose into an ocean of disenchantment and cataclysmic confusion. In short, I believe your enemies are skilfully setting you up for failure in order to be able to taunt your supporters later by saying we “we told you so!” In this regard it is pertinent to always bear in mind the Yoruba saying ‘ehin kunle l’ota wa, ile ni a se ni ngbe’! Loosely translated it means “the enemy lurk outside in the backyard but your foe resides inside your house.”

What is the matter this time? Many Nigerians are lamenting that the change you promised them is fast becoming a mirage. It is certainly not what they are seeing right now. They insist that your style and methodology appear too slow for a nation in dire straits and in need of urgent and miraculous deliverance. They are not happy that you are no longer the prudent man they used to know. They think you’ve already capitulated by frolicking with members of the bourgeois class and junketing around the world while Nigeria burns like Dante’s inferno. They are miffed that you are still keeping the Presidential fleet when you are supposed to have sold most of them off, if not all. They are worried that the mandate of four years they gave you is being unwittingly frittered away and before you know it all the goodwill you garnered would have evaporated and vamoosed. Time, they say, waits for no man!

The economy and the free fall of the Naira have become worrisome. There are all manner of rumours that may make matters worse, if true, about the current state and status of our banks. Though the Central Bank of Nigeria has come out forcefully to dispel the dangerous rumours, they want you to unleash your economic master-plan as soon as possible, so that what was once a baseless rumour does not somehow become harsh reality. They are expecting a blue-print that would guarantee a farewell to poverty. On this I agree with the opinion that something drastic has to be conjured up to arrest this drift to perdition. Nothing amplifies this monumental tragedy than the debit card fiasco which stipulates that Nigerians cannot live in a civilised world by walking into any international hotel or shop of their choice and paying with their cards. This is terribly depressing.

What this means in plain terms is that Nigerians must patronise the black market and run the risk of carrying cash recklessly whenever they travel abroad. It makes a mockery of the cashless society that the CBN has fought so hard to put in place and jeopardises your fight against corruption because government officials who travel abroad must of necessity carry large sums of cash if they are not to be embarrassed or even disgraced. Sir, the most important thing is that this is not healthy at all. The last thing your Government should be telling the world is that we are so broke that we are on our knees. The world laughs at us and treats us with derision because we have resources other than crude oil which should make us one of the richest in the world if we properly harness them. We must stop giving the impression that we are so impoverished when it is leadership, brigandage and a lack of focus that has failed us.

The other matter that continues to embarrass Nigerians is the issue of Boko Haram. The matter is made worse by the fact that you are a retired army General who should know and have what it takes to drastically reduce if not exterminate the cankerworm. But rather the menace has exacerbated. It has snowballed into a seemingly unquenchable conflagration. I had argued repeatedly that the military alone cannot achieve this result. Intelligence seems to be the key word here. Also identifying and locating some of the cells and prominent sympathisers is crucial. Those who arrogantly and naively say that no form of negotiation should take place are very far from the theatre of war. They have probably not heard of a group called IRA, the Irish Republican Army, that terrorised Great Britain for God knows how many years. I and my directors at Ovation International were lucky to escape a massive explosion that shattered the peace and tranquillity of London Docklands when a bomb went off inside the South Quay light rail station which was next to our office at Beaufort Court. The battle of wits and the war of attrition had to be fought using the carrot and the stick approach. It was the carrot approach that eventually succeeded and the United Kingdom has now been rid of that hitherto interminable scourge for many years!

The Boko Haram issue has defied every effort made so far and it is time to expand the options for the sake of our fellow citizens in the heart of this conundrum. When over 200 girls vanished into thin air, we were so sure they would return very soon but that has remained an illusion. This should tell us that this issue is not a joke and that we need to keep all windows open. Sir, Nigerians want to see government show a different approach and better compassion than what we had in the past. They are waiting to see how you will do this with minimum collateral damage.

Sir, you have a herculean task ahead but it is not a mission impossible. Other nations are experiencing almost similar challenges and they are forging ahead. The first indicator to exhibit our seriousness is when we stop the business as usual syndrome and tighten the belts of government officials and politicians. If the idea is to continue along the path of profligacy then Nigeria is contagiously jinxed. The Republic of Tanzania has already taken the lead. I will publish a report that has already gone viral below this letter as a veritable example of what is possible.

I wish you well as always Sir.

Nigerians are lamenting - Dele Momodu writes Buhari

Nigerians expectations from Buhari are like Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead - Dele Momodu

By Olalekan Bilesanmi

Mr Dele Momodu, the publisher of the Qvation magazine, was the presidential candidate of the National Commission Party (NCP) in the  2011 general elections. In this interview, Momodu speaks on the Buhari administration, the elections of the leaders of the two chambers of the National Assembly and his relationship with the National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as well as the late politician, Chief MKO Abiola, among other issues.

Dele Momodu

You were, before the general elections, one of the unofficial spokespersons for  President Muhammadu  Buhari, who was then the APC presidential candidate.  But of recent, your thoughts about the president appears to be changing?

I am surprised  at your comment because I have never changed. I am the biggest supporter of  President Muhammadu Buhari today. All I have done is to tell the president what people are saying outside, that is my job. We don’t tell our leaders the truth. I told former president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, the truth throughout his tenure. This is detailed in  my forthcoming book, titled, ‘’Pendulum, a book of prophesy’’. Everything I told President Jonathan  happened. I owe that  to our president too  today.

Once you become the president in Nigeria, people stop telling you the truth. They only tell you what you want to hear. I am a stakeholder in this government. I wonder what would have happened to me if the PDP had returned to power. I was already under constant threat. I received threat messages.  I had to name all the numbers anonymous because they were all attacking me for supporting Buhari. I didn’t support the president because I wanted anything from him. I supported him because I believed  at this time of our lives, we need a father-figure, what I called the Mandela- option in Nigeria. And I thought Buhari, as a man of integrity, of impeccable character, fits that bill.

But, three months after the election, Nigerians are getting impatient  because most of them cannot wait for even one second. I was the first to write an article titled, ‘’In Search Of Patience’’, telling the people to exercise patience with  the man.  But being patient does not mean we should fold our arms indefinitely. There are things that can still be done. I found a proverb some where which says ‘’the meat of antelope tastes very good, but while it is cooking, we can still make do with groundnut’’. While we are waiting for that big action, some things must keep us going, whether pop corn, ice cream or something. If the National Assembly, within some minutes, approved about 15 Special Advisers; so, what is stopping us from picking our National Security Adviser, if we have to change the one there now.

How about the Chief of Staff, the Principal Secretary, the Secretary to the Federal Government. The longer it takes, the longer the tension, and also the longer the pressure on Mr President. I want  the president to know that if they begin to put pressure on him, things may begin to fall apart. Had it been some things are already  in place, I am sure the tension would have reduced.

But things have rotten  so much  so that many people support the president taking his time before making any appointments.

No. I was once a presidential candidate. Before a man says he wants  to be president, he must have his plans and blue print of things that he saw not working properly. As such, he thought he had solution to them. Yes, you might not have 100%  solution to the problems, but you have a fair idea of what needed to be done urgently. And you said you have the answer to them before you offered yourself to serve. And there is nobody more experienced than President Muhammadu  Buhari. He was there over 30 years ago. He also acted in other capacities before now.

So, I expect him to be able to know what he wants to do. Your principal staff, you will know who they are, and you will appoint them. Even the ministers, by now, there is no law that says all the ministers must be ready at the same time. The problems we have in Nigeria are so big that one second is like eternity. I pleaded with people few weeks back to be patient, but I am telling you that the public outcry is no longer favourable to our cause. And I don’t want us to lose that moment to the concerns of the people. It is like a plane that is about to take off.

The outcry, some have said, is genuine but that people are not well informed about the enormity of the problems at hand?

No one is crying foul. Don’t let us misuse language. They are only asking for action. They have the right to that. Their expectation was that of a magician. That was what I wrote in my article. What the Nigerians expect of you is like that of Jesus Christ turning water into wine, raising  Lazarus from the dead. I wrote another article, ‘’Buhari and the burden of expectations’’. To whom is given, much is expected. Nigerians saw him as magician. They believe he has talismanic powers to transform Nigeria from penury to prosperity. You can’t blame them. Nobody is blaming Buhari, we are just saying ‘please sir, time is not on your side’. I am not one of those who will rush him.

I am just reflecting the mood of the nation. I am a journalist. I gave him hints of what people expect him to do. I am not one of those  who write abstract nonsense. I write constructively as a patriotic citizen. I joined the struggle since my days at University of Ife  in 1978.  I have never stopped since then. I also  a country my children can live in and live in peace. I want a country where no girl would vanish into thin air for two years without any trace. I want a country where young school leavers would get jobs. I want a country where I will not spend all my  money to generate electricity. I want a country where the infrastructure meets international standard like other oil producing countries. I want a country where our people will not be too distant from their leaders.

Talking about sudden change, you were known to be a  friend and admirer of the APC National Leader, Ashiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, but suddenly you started supporting the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, against his party?

 There is nothing sudden in that. From day one, I supported Saraki for various reasons. I will say that, boldly, any where. And I stand by it. I supported him based on empirical facts of what I know. One of it…..

(Cuts in)But you are not a member of the party?

Yes, that is the beauty of it all.

So how come you are saying authoritatively that ‘’from what I know’’?

I interact with people. At my level, a 55-year-old man, I have friends everywhere. I have contacts. I say this with every sense of responsibility. I don’t know of anybody who worked harder than Saraki, Amaechi and the rest of them for Buhari. Yes, so many people worked for Buhari, but I am telling you that from my own stand point, from my interactions, these people mentioned almost worked themselves to death for Buhari. As a matter of fact, at a time, some people were saying  it was better to have consensus candidate for the party so that there won’t be rancour after the primaries; but some people refused, saying they were not ready to step down for Buhari.

Saraki was one of the first people who declared total and unflinching support for Buhari. Amaechi adores Kwankwaso. I know that for a fact.  Ameachi loves Kwankwaso to death. But because of Buhari, Amaechi refused to support Kwankwaso. I don’t know if Kwankwaso will forgive him for that. But, he was honest enough to tell Kwankwaso that ‘’I have given my word to Buhari, I cannot turn back’’.  Same thing with Saraki. I know for a fact that Saraki worships Tinubu. Quote me. Maybe our Oga (Tinubu)does not know it. You know, sometimes, you don’t know those who love you if you have a lot of crowd around you. But I am saying it to you that Saraki, the Senate President, worships Tinubu.

Then or till now?

I am sure till today. Saraki was one of Tinubu disciples. In fact, when some people were saying Tinubu wanted to hijack  the party by installing his men,  Saraki and Amaechi were among  those who said ‘no, we must give our leader whatever he wants;  we must not humiliate our leader’, because they(new PDP) had the power at that time to install their own candidate and they would have won, because the new PDP that joined APC at that time was formidable enough. But, they insisted they must defer to Tinubu. It is what I know, not that they told me.

There are people who may go behind and tell the leaders lies, but I love Tinubu to the extent that I will never tell him a lie. I will tell him only what I know. So, among those who worked so hard day and night, gathered those who could support the campaign, Saraki was one of them. Amaeachi risked his entire life for that campaign. In an association of five or more political parties, I expected that immediately after victory, all of you would have come together to decide which of the parties in the association takes what. That was not the case.

My advice to those of us who are close to Ashiwaju Tinubu is that people should prevail on him not to oppose Saraki because he is one of his men. If you have children and you show one that he is the preferred child  above other ones, they will be angry. I think Saraki felt betrayed. If I were  Ashiwaju, I would have done what the president did. I can almost bet my life that the President Buhari had a preferred candidate even though we didn’t know who the person was, but he said he would not interfere.

It will get to a stage in life where two of your children are fighting for something, you stand back and let them go to the field and whoever wins, you support him, not that you tie the arms of one against the other. You have not even told us why you are supporting one against the other. I have not read it anywhere. The only thing I have so far read was that Senator Lawan is a ranking member, beyond that, what else? Beyond that, nobody sold Lawan to us.

But the elections in both chambers appear to be polarising the party?

Yes. That is what it will come to if you supported one child against the other. I predicted it. Go and read my article, titled, ‘’Let’s honour our heroes’’, in which I canvassed that we must honour those people who worked for the party. I saw this coming because whoever knew a  little bit of the rudiment of politics would have predicted same. Don’t forget that the generation of today is different, the temperament is different. The man’s(Saraki) life ambition was to be Senate President, to, at least, go beyond what his father achieved of being the Senate Leader. That is the dream of everybody in life, to surpass your father’s glory. That is why you had a W. Bush, and then, a George Bush Jr. and then a Jeb Bush coming, if it happens.

You must know that a Saraki who had that kind of ambition, you could not discourage him. If you are not going to support him, don’t discourage him. That was my position. I am not saying Tinubu had no right  to support Lawan or anybody for that matter.  But I know from my interactions with the senators particularly from South- West, many  of them were secretly supporting Saraki but for the fear of Tinubu and the backlash, they didn’t come out in the open. And when this was about to happen, I sent people close to Ashiwaju to tell him that this was what was happening.

Whenever I met those South-West senators, they would say, E ba ore yin soro(please talk to your friend), but I can no longer do that, those days are gone. Today, if you go to Ashiwaju’s house, it is like a market place. And in a market place, all human beings will be there, and, most of them, for one purpose or the other. The reality is that has Tinubu accepted Saraki  as one of his children and did not show any open bias against him? I am speaking facts, I am not taking sides. I am one million times closer to Tinubu than Saraki. But I will always support the under dog. That is me.

When General Buhari was going to speak at Chatham House in London, contrary to what the Fayose and co were saying that it never took place and that the man was in air ambulance…. I was in contact with Amaechi and Saraki. He was going to speak on Thursday, I left London via Madrid on a Tuesday for Ghana. I got to Accra in the evening. On Wednesday, Saraki contacted me and said Buhari was going to speak at Chatham House. I told him that I just got to Accra last night. He pleaded that whatever I could do, media wise, to make the day successful, I should do.

So, I contacted an international photographer and asked him to meet up with Amaechi while I  took the next available flight back to London. Saraki was shocked and excited that I could return to London the following day for the event. So, I knew the efforts of Saraki and Amaechi.  And when you talk about party supremacy, yes, the party is always supreme but not party dictatorship. Yes, the party will advise you,  but you too will have a say. The party is made up of human beings. Even a father cannot be absolute. This is democracy.

Why did the Senate South-East caucus reject Lawan? Was it Saraki that rejected him? The party can make recommendation but everybody must be carried along. It would have been impossible to win that (Senate) election without carrying PDP along. What I expected from our leaders from the South-West was to have accepted the voice of God, whether it was controversial or not. Aminu Tambuwal emerged as Speaker from the PDP, it was controversial. And he remained Speaker till May 29, PDP didn’t kill him for that, neither was he called names. Tinubu is a father-figure to all of them, I think that is the role he should be playing.

Are you Tinubu’s boy?

Tinubu is my mentor.  And I won’t join those who mislead our master. There is nothing wrong in being anybody’s boy. If you humble yourself, God will lift you up. I will always respect Tinubu. He is older than me, minimum of 10 years. So, if I cannot call him my father, anybody who wants to disrespect his own father can go ahead, he is free.

You said the late Abiola has more than 70% influence on you, it is like you are fanatical about this man?

Yes. I worked briefly in one of his companies, Concord, from 1988 to 1990. Because of my visibility in five of the titles on the Concord stable, coupled with my assistance in getting Shina Peters to play in his house for a party he hosted for the Super Eagles at that time, I became known to him and, from there, we became bonded. While a lot of people were following him because of money, I was always going to see him, mainly for mentorship. I was a disciple of Abiola, I later became an apostle. I could almost tell you how Abiola would react to any situation. There are two people today in my life that affected me:  Abiola and  the other one who I  call  a spirit you don’t see but you feel.  That is Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr. He is just incredible. I have learnt a lot from these two men.  You cannot be great if you don’t recognise greatness in others. That is why I say that about 70% of what I have learnt today is from the late Abiola.

Ovation is 364 pages, from less than 100 pages. Is that not  too voluminous?

The idea is to make every issue of Ovation a collector’s item. Something you cannot throw away or use to sell groundnut. Ovation is a lifestyle magazine. You have to aspire to be there. There was a woman who called some years back from Ilorin, Kwara State. She had been dreaming for 10 years about  two things, that is when her daughter is getting married, Ovation to cover the wedding, and having Sikiru Ayinde Barrister to perform, even if he was going to come on  wheel chair. She fulfilled the two dreams. Barrister played for her before he passed away. It is not like any or every other magazine. It is very spiritual in nature in its birth, conception, sustainability.

Some say you are trying to scare your competitors away?

There is nothing wrong with that. In anything you do, if you are not strong enough, your competitors will come and kick you away. I leant that from Mike Adenuga who puts everything in his business to make a difference. So, we have to put everything we have back into the magazine and that was why  we have the French version of the magazine which has been running since 2006, because we do French covers. We have done cover in Hausa language before. We are experimental. That is why the fun has been on for close to 20 years now. We will be 20 next year April. We are also presently having the television version of it, now airing on Silverbird and Ben TV in London.

Which of these editions would you say is most outstanding for you?

Every copy of ovation, as I said, is a collector’s item. Every copy of ovation is a work of art and science. We go to the very extreme to give our readers the best value for money. That is why it is probably the most expensive magazine in the whole of Africa. Even at that, you cannot cover the cost, because every copy is like a hand-woven work of art. We have been with the same printer in London for the past 15 years. I am proud that in Africa, a company fully controlled by  an  African can think about quality;  that, I think, is the greatest secret of ovation. Those who buy it  do so because of its quality. When President Jonathan’s  daughter got married, Ovation was the magazine of choice, it was the official magazine, and that was despite my opposition to the PDP. I am a  professional to the core.

The magazine is for everybody. Whether you are in PDP, APC, APGA, any party at all. When the Queen of England was coming to Nigeria, Ovation was chosen by Buckingham Palace as the official magazine for Her Majesty’s visit. When Dubai was going to be marketed to Africa, the British trade partners invited us to London to go to Dubai to take pictures all over Dubai and produced an edition which we called ‘See Dubai and Die’. Of course, that changed how people perceived Dubai because, before then, it used be only traders who went to  Dubai.

So, I cannot say a particular edition is the best. I can give you some of the memorable ones. Dr.Dehinde  Fernadez  Island in New York, to  me, that is epic. Then going to Maiduguri, Borno State, to photographe  Alhaji Muhammed Indimi’s  house called House of Gold,  I have never seen anything like it. It is an incredible monument.  I flew in Collin Ramsay, the father of all photographers, in his late 70s, from London. The man who had taken world celebrities photographs including Imelda Marcos. That was the level that we took photography to. Some said when we first started that within  six  months, it was going to perish, but here we are, 19 years after, still standing.

You said you are not rich, even with the success of Ovation?

Wealth, I believe, is relative. People in  Africa, especially in Nigeria, tend to assess achievement in terms of money. I don’t.  My biggest achievement today is creating a global brand; a  brand that anywhere I  am, and I have been on all the continents in the world,  I have both brand and name recognition. I have been able to build a double brand. That is one of the most difficult things  to do as an entrepreneur. When you mention Microsoft, your mind naturally goes to Bill Gates. You mention Apple and your mind goes to Steve Jobs. You mention Virgin and your mind goes to  Richard Branson. You mention Ovation, your mind must go to Dele Momodu. that is my greatest achievement. Every other thing, God will take care of it.

 

Nigerians expectations from Buhari are like Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead - Dele Momodu

A Desperate Memo To President Buhari By Dele Momodu

Your Excellency, I write to you today with a heavy heart. The reason should be obvious. I was one of those latter day converts to Buharism, a political philosophy that believes in the reincarnation of former leaders in the days of tribulation. You were never the first man to resurrect from retirement and near political oblivion. General Olusegun Obasanjo bounced back from prison to Aso Rock Villa. In nearby Benin Republic, former military dictator and strongman, Mathieu Kerekou who had served as maximum ruler for about 17 incredible years, came back to defeat incumbent President , Nicephore Soglo in a 1990 election.  He led his country for another ten years and almost got another five-year term but for the age barrier that disqualified him.

Dele Momodu

It is normal for Africans to run towards the wise elders of the village when trouble comes knocking. That is one of the major reasons Nigerians in their millions voted with their feet and thumbs to elect you President.  Many of those who supported you did so for several other reasons and you must understand that they were mainly not members of your political party, APC. So, apart from your age, they backed you because they believed in your impeccable pedigree as an incorruptible and honourable man, a strict disciplinarian, a Scrooge who would not fritter away our meagre resources, a scourge of rogues and prodigal sons, a metamorphosed tyrant now a born-again democrat, and so on and so forth. Nigerians ardently placed their hopes in you and fervently prayed you won’t disappoint them.  This is the principal reason I have decided to send you this desperate memo today before some despicable politicians tarnish your hard-earned reputation and truncate this beautiful chance again.

Sir, let me say right away that the goodwill garnered during your campaigns and the jubilation that heralded your recent victory are fast fading and you need to, as a matter of urgency, convince the people of Nigeria that you’re now ready to hit the ground running. They are not going to listen to excuses since you had 30 years after quitting the high office to onerously prepare for the job again. For them it is immaterial that you met an empty treasury or that you are mostly surrounded by selfish, corruptive influences and impostors. As I mentioned in my earlier epistles to you, Nigerians have become totally impatient and what they expect of you is tantamount to performing the miracle of turning water into wine or raising Lazarus from the dead. You cannot afford to waste any second before displaying the sterner stuff you’re reputed to be made of.

I had encouraged you not to be afraid of taking charge of the Party that brought you to power or tackling the politicians that claimed to have helped you in the process. I had imagined that you know the ways of our politicians by now and thought you knew how to handle them. I had told you matter-of-factly that you may have to step on some powerful toes in order to achieve anything tangible. The worst that may likely happen is for people to say and accuse you of dictatorial proclivity which won’t be new in your lexicon or to be threatened with impeachment and all-what-not. But trust me, no evil shall befall you for as long as you carry the people along in your crusade and do not pander to the whims and caprices of members of the privilegentsia.

There is no doubt that the present imbroglio in your Party is as a result of your lukewarm attitude to Party issues thinking you could merely concentrate on nation-building while others deal with political intrigues. However, it is not always as simple as that. As you can now see, you don’t seem to be on the same page with your Party. While you were busy agonising over the myriad of problems besetting Nigeria, many of your presumed disciples were busy fighting over positions and control of power the way babies squabble over lollipops. They have studiously forgotten the change mantra and the huge expectations that made the electorate to troop out in droves and cast their votes for you and the Party.

The moment you became the President-elect, you should have readied your manacles for all would-be trouble makers. You should have sent out a powerful message to those politicians who may wish to act above the law. But the moment you appeared ready to abdicate some of your leadership responsibilities to them, the obvious lacuna gave them the needed impetus to take charge and cut you adrift. Your political advisers, if any, should have prepared you for the offensive. There is no way you are going to fight and survive the battle ahead if the political class see you as a man they can easily bully. You cannot sit on the fence.  Whilst your decision not to interfere in the affairs of another arm of Government, the legislature, is commendable and indeed your constitutional duty, you must make it clear to your Party that the same non-interference must apply to them.

Our people may have voted for your Party but they also voted for the individuals that the Party entrusted its mandate to including you.  Just as there is a limit to how the Party can control you in the exercise of your executive functions and those you choose to assist you in the fulfilment of those functions, so also must you tell the Party chieftains that there is a limit as to how much the leadership structure and duties of the legislative arm can be controlled.  If you are ambiguous about this, then you are inviting your Party leadership to write a letter to you categorically stating not only those you must appoint as your Ministers and Special Advisers but also those that you must not work with under any guise. I am sure you would not tolerate that. In the same vein you must not tolerate Party interference in the legislature.  Change has come, please imbibe it!

President Buhari

In essence it is incumbent on you to deal with the issues arising from tensions created by party supremacy, parliamentary democracy and above all constitutionality.  There is a delicate balance to be struck between these competing interests though constitutionality must eventually prevail.  However, even constitutionality is subordinated to national interest, because that is the most important interest of all.

Your Party has a lot to learn from the tragedy which was invited upon itself by advertence of the former ruling Party, PDP. As a mark of respect to your status and office, your Party should have adopted your instinct and temperament immediately you conceded that the elections of principal officers at the National Assembly were “somewhat constitutional.” Even if internally aggrieved, like mortals may invariably be, your Party hierarchy should not have washed their dirty linen in public knowing the full implications of the backlash that might splash and smear your collective image. APC should have done what PDP failed to do when Governor Rotimi Amaechi won the Chairmanship of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum by instantly recognising the leadership of the National Assembly while seeking ways to ameliorate the unfortunate saga. No reasonable parent would voluntarily kill a recalcitrant child. There is always another opportunity for penitence and atonement.

I expected the crisis to escalate once the warring factions stuck arrogantly to their positions and neither was ready to bulge. Had APC accepted its fate with equanimity, I’m certain this peculiar mess would have been exterminated. Had Saraki and Dogara shown magnanimity in victory some of the truculent malice expressed by certain leaders may have also been mellowed.

Say what you will, the PDP had its fair dose of political migraine and rambunctiousness but it accepted certain realities and moved on. The ones they failed to accept led to their cataclysmic fall. The mutually destructive suspicion in APC should have been nipped in the bud for your sake. The burden you currently carry is heavier than an elephant and I don’t think you need or deserve this kind of nuisance distraction. The leadership of the National Assembly should also calm down by reaching out to their angry Party chieftains. There is nothing to gain in fighting a perennial war. Once upon a time, they were all friends and members of the same family. It is never too late to embrace peace and reunite. Now that we know what the bone of contention is, no one should be victimised for belonging to whatever factions that exist.

I have read endless arguments for and against the pugilists in APC and my candid advice is that you need to appoint your cabinet and aides now. The sooner you assemble and send forth your foot-soldiers the better for our polity to begin the healing process. Right now our nation appears to be rudderless and floundering and this should not be the case.  What is left for you to do is to quickly bring all the gladiators together and see how you can apply some balm on frayed nerves. The Federal Government has humongous largesse to disburse so it should not be too difficult to appease the juggernauts. When that is sorted, you should draw your own plans and let your people know your roadmap. Your job would be much easier if you surround yourself with people who can look at you straight in the eye and say the truth no matter how bitter. Most of our leaders failed because they fell victims of sweet-talking scammers.

It is very essential that your Party sees and embrace you as their father and not the other way round. Whether you like it or not, and whether others in your Party want to accept it or not, you are the de facto national leader of your Party. You are the President and Commander in Chief of our country. Yes, you ARE the capo di tutti capi. You therefore cannot be subservient to any other person.  You must immediately take upon this role and assume that mantle. Please feel free to lay down the law and if occasion demands, enforce our law.  That is what leaders do. Ambivalence or hesitancy will simply not do! You have the next four years minus one month and time is ticking away dutifully.

Equally important is the fact that you are more of a social crusader than a politician and your Party ought to note this fact and understand that it can’t be business as usual. Your Party leveraged on your uncommon reputation to gain POWER. Sir, you can’t afford to evaporate such stupendous equity just like that. You have demonstrated enough tolerance but the time has come to repudiate our propensity for rascality.

The task ahead is so gargantuan and it would require all hands to be on deck. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I reiterate that the first priority, apart from national security, should be how to reduce the atrocious costs of running government in Nigeria. Until you achieve that sir, the Muhammed Alis of Nigeria will never stop their boxing tournaments in parliaments and elsewhere. The fight is for cash and not for any selfless services. Many won’t bother to contest if they think it is not lucrative. I don’t know how you plan to do this but it has to be done somehow and thankfully there are many methods that you can deploy. I’m glad you hope to retrieve some of the stolen billions. You need some serious cash, Sir. The challenges ahead would dissipate if you can raise the finances needed to tackle them.

I trust that God has deliberately raised you up at this time as a veritable example to mankind that being honest is not a crime and we have a lot to learn and cheer from your miraculous victory. May God help you to carry this cross successfully.

THE TONY ELUMELU ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAMME

As I wrote last week, Nigeria needs to create thousands of new entrepreneurs in order to get out of the present economic quagmire that has made it impossible for too many Nigerians to have jobs. Thanks to Dr Tony Elumelu’s initiative, help is already on the way. 1,000 entrepreneurs from across Africa will gather at the TEEP Boot camp in Ota, Nigeria from July 10-12, 2015. These meticulously screened and carefully selected entrepreneurs are part of the 10-year commitment of $100 million to supporting entrepreneurship in Africa. Many of the lucky but bright recipients are Nigerians. For me, this is great news. The creation, development, nurturing and deployment of the entrepreurial spirit in Africa in general, and Nigeria in particular, is hearty good news for a continent bedevilled by a litany of woes and deprivation.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation has already engaged the emerging entrepreneurs in a 12-week online training session after about 20,000 applications were considered and pruned down. They were drawn from 51 African countries. This is a worthy legacy that would be talked about for many generations to come. Dr Elumelu and his team deserve our commendation for putting smiles on the faces of our people and hopefully in the not too distant future, better quality food on their table.

May God continue to bless Tony Elumelu and his family.

A Desperate Memo To President Buhari By Dele Momodu

Buhari: When Facts Become ‘Contrived…’(A must read)

With Shaka Momodu E-mail: shaka.momodu@thisdaylive.com, 08112661654

It is not my desire to join issues or engage any of my  colleagues in an open debate in the media. This article should therefore be seen as an exception. After reading Waziri Adio’s article on the back page of THISDAY 15th December titled, “Is This, Finally, The Buhari Moment?” I came to the inescapable conclusion that there were obvious gaps that needed to be filled. For the records, Mr Adio was spot on and I largely agree with the analysis except for the phrase ‘contrived handicaps’ which is suggestive of falsehood sold as truth.

I therefore find the urge to correct some misrepresentations too strong to resist. It is particularly expedient to fill the missing years between 1984 (about 30 years) ago when Buhari entered the consciousness of Nigerians with those immortal and awe inspiring words which Waziri heralded his article, “This generation of Nigerians and indeed future generations have no country other than Nigeria, we shall remain here and salvage it together” and his 2014 speech preceding his nomination when he stated thus, “We seek a new Nigeria. It starts with us, it starts today…. Nigeria is our home. Let us now turn it into the great Nation we know it can and should be.’’

Of truth, that statement in 1984 captivated and galvanised Nigerians across the country into looking inward and believing our situation was not beyond redemption. But the succeeding years have seen Buhari morphing into something of a caricature image far less noble than the vision encapsulated in that powerful summation of 1984.

These years have been very revealing of the Buhari personae.  So much water has passed under the bridge such that it would be wrong to condense and analyse Buhari on just two inspiring quotes 30 years apart and attempt to sell his candidature as a viable alternative. I find this unhelpful for a society yearning for direction.

What about the intervening years that have thrown up a deeply partisan, sectional and religious irredentist that I am sure, many Nigerians would find different from the man who spoke those words 30 years ago? The truth here is that from when he spoke his first words to Nigerians and became a fixture of sort in our psyche, Buhari has evolved severally; he has become a convoluted and conflicted brand. From an inspirational national leader, he withdrew into the conclave of an ethno-religious champion and a fanatical extremist who has sought without apologies to anyone,   to undermine everything the Nigeria nation stands for.

We will be guilty of extreme naivety to wave off these tendencies that are so manifestly glaring in the APC presidential candidate as figment of our imagination or merely “contrived handicaps” by Buhari haters to undermined him like my Egbon Waziri has done.

While Mr Adio will have us believe that the well deserved appellation is “contrived handicaps”, the facts and records of history speak to the contrary. As I said, Buhari has become deeply conflicted and I say it without mincing words and that contrary to Waziri Adio’s position, Buhari is an ethno-religious fundamentalist. The ark of history is on my side here. The fact that Buhari is being rebranded by the APC apparatchiks and has consequently toned down his extremist views about North/South and Muslims/Christians of the country, for political correctness does not make him any less a religious extremist. I even find the whole rebranding project pretentious, deceitful, and unflattering to the iron-cast inscrutable image of the General. My admonition to those behind it is that you cannot change a man from who he is to who he is not.

The proof of Buhari’s ethno-religious leaning is stated here in his own words and recorded position on issues pertaining to Sharia and the interest of the North as against the overriding interest ofNigeria. If  Waziri Adio so fervently believes that Buhari is not a fundamentalist, what does he make of Buhari’s statement 27 August 2001,“I will continue to show openly and inside me the total commitment to the Sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria.  God willing, we’ll not stop the agitation for the total implementation of Sharia in the country.’’

As if that was not enough, Buhari stated further, “Muslims should vote for fellow Muslims who can defend their faith”. If Waziri Adio so strongly believes that the fundamentalist toga was ‘contrived,’ what does he make of the above?

Just a few weeks ago, Atiku Abubarkar called Buhari a religious bigot and warned that Nigeria doesn’t need a religious bigot as president. I believe Atiku played that up for his own political advantage because of the primary that was coming up where he alongside other contestants squared against Buhari, but even at that, he was merely stating a self evident fact.

Recall also that during Governor Rasheed Ladoja’s time as governor of Oyo state, Buhari travelled all the way from Daura in Katsina to visit Governor Ladoja in Ibadan. It was no ordinary visit, but a protest visit that Ladoja’s people were killing his (Buhari’s) people. Still wondering what all that means? Well, you don’t have to wait for long. Here it is.  It was all about the clashes between Hausa-Fulani herdsmen grazing with their cattle in indigenes’ farmland and destroying their crops. Buhari’s exact words were: “Your people are killing my people.” If this is not a sufficient proof of this man’s sectional-ethnic affinity and inclination then, someone will have to tell me what is. Governor Ladoja was so disappointed in Buhari, that he issued him a rebuke, urging him to play the statesman instead of narrow ethnic interest that chips away at his position as a former head of state.

Just last year,  when the state of emergency was declared in parts of the North-east to tame the menace of the devilish and blood-thirsty Boko Haram which has severally broken its own worst record of human carnage,  Buhari stated  in an interview  that  he was against the state of emergency and military action against sect, which he described as a grave injustice to the North. According to him in his lamentation, “unlike the special treatment the federal government gave to the Niger Delta militants, the Boko Haram members were being killed and their houses demolished.”

Waziri Adio should tell Nigerians what Buhari meant by that statement. If it was not supportive of Boko Haram and at the same time playing the ethno-religious card, then half the world is not enough as a gift to me. Now, how can a former head of state even make such a statement? What was it meant to achieve? Any objective deductions from Buhari’s statements will inevitably come to the sane conclusion that many Nigerians have come to – a religious fundamentalist who wants to right the perceived ‘wrongs’ done to the north.

Lest we forget, The same Buhari was once nominated by Boko Haram as their chief negotiator even though he reluctantly declined. But why did the murderous terror sect choose Buhari of all people, a former head of state of Nigeria, as their negotiator from a motley crowd of qualified ethno-religious champions who believe that power belongs to the north or “northerners are born to rule”? I am unable to find an answer to this question except to think that perhaps, Boko Haram trusted him more to represent their interest.  Was this also ‘contrived’?

It is easy to rebuke those who call Buhari a religious fundamentalist or an extremist, but Buhari’s character portrait and utterances over the years speak to the answer. I was once a big fan of Buhari in the 80s, and for the life of me, I agonised over many sleepless nights when my ‘hero’ started to unravel before my very eyes. His war against indiscipline endeared him to me. It was good for society and it remains an enduring legacy in the country today.

While this write-up is not an assessment of the failings of Buhari’s regime from  1984, I am of the belief that a man who executed three young Nigerians with a law retroactively implemented and has remained unrepentant, unremorseful and still believes in the rightness of that action, his sense of morality and righteousness must be deeply flawed. And for those who think Buhari’s views have matured over time, I say, I wish. We seems to have forgotten so soon how innocent youth corpers serving in parts of the north were killed just because Buhari lost the 2011 presidential election?  And I dare say the language of his campaign was largely responsible for those killings.

I am also not impressed with the narrative out there that Buhari believes in fighting corruption with total commitment, even though he may not be personally corrupt and I dare say, he is not. He allows certain things under table and in some cases, negligently aids and abets corrupt acts. Remember the 53 suit cases? What about his stewardship at PTF? It is not as flattering as some would want us to believe. And before I forget, in 2008, at the 10th anniversary of the death of Abacha, Buhari declared to the consternation of all Nigerians that Abacha was neither corrupt nor  a thief. “He did not steal Nigeria’s money,” he declared sternly with military fiat. This is despite the fact that several countries had returned hundreds of millions of dollars to  Nigeria as part of Abacha’s recovered loot. I don’t know if this position was also ‘contrived’ by Buhari’s hate club. If not, I don’t know how much good this does to the General’s image as an anti-corruption leader that is being daily burnished in the media. Anyone who denies this fact of history that Abacha did not loot the treasury cannot be an honest person and for Buhari to do that speak powerfully to the charge against him. It is an eloquent testimony that tells a lot about what his promoters would not want to talk about.

The harrowing traffic chaos that we all suffer and agonise over today in Lagos is a direct result of Buhari’s narrow and parochial minded view of economic affairs of this country. The cancellation of the Lagos Metro Line project  after commencement of work remains a sad reminder of Buhari’s lack of vision and foresight. Tragically, those who have borne the brunt of that unfortunate action are today the very people packaging, marketing and promoting him to be president partly with the resources of the Lagos state. Thankfully, our memories are not like architecture that is often described as frozen music.

This is Professor Wole Soyinka’s take away on Buhari in 2007. It is like he just wrote it yesterday,“The grounds on which General Buhari is being promoted as the alternate choice are not only shaky, but pitifully naïve. History matters. Records are not kept simply to assist the weakness of memory, but to operate as guides to the future. Of course, we know that human beings change. What the claims of personality change or transformation impose on us is a rigorous inspection of the evidence, not wishful speculation or behind-the-scenes assurances. Public offence, crimes against a polity, must be answered in the public space, not caucuses of bargaining. In Buhari, we have been offered no evidence of the sheerest prospect of change. On the contrary, all evidence suggests that this is one individual who remains convinced that this is one ex-ruler that the nation cannot call to order. Need one remind anyone he was one of the Generals who treated a Commission of Enquiry, the Oputa Panel, with unconcealed disdain. Like Babaginda and Abdusalami, he refused to put in appearance even though complaints that were tabled against him involved a career of gross abuses of power and blatant assault on the fundamental human rights of the Nigerian citizenry. Prominent against these charges was an act that amounted to nothing less than judicial murder, the execution of a citizen under a retroactive decree. Does Decree 20 ring a bell? If not, then, perhaps the names of three youths-Lawal Ojuolape(30), Bernard Ogedengbe (29) and Bartholomew Owoh (26) do. To put it quite plainly, one of those three-Ogedengbe-was executed for a crime that did not carry a capital forfeiture at the time it was committed. This was an unconscionable crime, carried out in defiance of the pleas and protests of nearly every sector of the Nigerian and international community, religious, civil rights, political, trade unions etc.”

It is a tragic irony that some of those rooting for and shouting sai Buhari! sai Buhari!! are members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm who suffered terribly under the General’s jackboot. Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor must be pinching themselves and wondering what has happened to society’s gatekeepers’ memories.

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Buhari: When Facts Become ‘Contrived…’(A must read)

APC, Please Get Serious

By Dele Momodu

Fellow Nigerians, please let me say categorically that I don’t subscribe to the sentiments of those who think APC is in trouble just because the party recently lost one of the States it controlled in its stronghold of South West. My thesis is very simple. The APC stands to gain from that shock treatment if its leaders are serious about remaining relevant in our political landscape. I have read many commentaries about what went wrong for APC in Ekiti State. Some are right, most are wrong.

While Governor Kayode Fayemi must naturally carry most of the blame, it is pertinent to note that the voting pattern in Ekiti was not a vote for PDP. It was an endorsement of Fayose’s sagacity as a street kid. Ekiti is still largely rural and the people love it when you can lower your nose a bit no matter how educated you are. They want you to savour your bowl of pounded yam and speak your dialect with impeccability. Fayose was the ace for PDP and not the other way round despite the Federal power of intimidation.

We must drum it into the ears of those Agidigbo drummers of PDP who won’t let us rest about their conquest in Ekiti, that it was a straight contest between the personalities of Kayode Fayemi and Peter Fayose, and nothing to do with the fortunes of their party having changed. Fayose is a popular politician who was impeached under controversial circumstances. Unlike others who simply vamoosed after losing power, Fayose never lost his spirit. He is a dogged fighter and a rolling-stone who crisscrossed different political parties before returning to his original turf of PDP. That strategy kept him engaged and he was able to build a humongous network in the process. He was smart to be in the same camp with Fayemi at a time.

Fayose understood the aphorisms: the enemy of your enemy is your friend and that he who fights and runs to the other camp may still return stronger one day. The idea was also to use that to buy sometime and legitimacy. The masterstroke was that no one in the Fayemi camp could have legitimately called Fayose a criminal or any such unprintable nomenclature because he was with them and they had accepted him warts and all. Nigerian politics has not yet advanced to the level of principle and ideology; individual performance and achievement, may be!

All Fayose wanted at the time was to be a Senator. But he couldn’t realise his dream and he was forced to move on. That is one of the hard lessons APC must learn urgently; that life is give and take. You can’t invite people on board and treat them like animals of no consequence. The use and dump tactics of Nigerian politicians always come back to haunt them. APC failed to realise that you must always keep your friends close and your foes even closer. They would need to employ relationship managers at the rate they are going. ACN has metamorphosed from being LTD to a PLC, and the terms of reference must be different. Had they managed to keep Fayose in their fold, perhaps he would have deferred his Governorship ambition.

The same could be said of Honourable Opeyemi Bamidele who used to be one of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s closest foot soldiers. The inability of the party to keep Opeyemi under lock and key was the beginning of trouble for APC. The Bible is very clear on this; a house divided against itself shall fall. It was obvious Opeyemi stood no chance of winning but he was ready to be the loose-cannon and play the devil’s foil. Opeyemi may not have wasted substantial votes of APC but he provided the perfect platform and alibi for PDP to crawl into the cracked walls of APC like lizards often do. If the foundation of APC was stronger in Ekiti it would have been more difficult for Fayose to use cudgels to demolish their house like a pack of cards.

Ask most Ekiti voters and they will tell you that they would have voted for Fayose whatever Party he had contested for. They will also tell you that they still have no faith in PDP but that Fayose had redeemed the Party somewhat. The PDP will be deluding itself if it considers the victory of its flagbearer in Ekiti State somehow translates into a victory for its failed policies and directionless leadership. Nigerians are more discerning.

Let’s now move beyond Ekiti and focus on the future of opposition in Nigeria. Despite the teething problems APC is experiencing, I believe Nigerians will support them ultimately. It is in the nature of man to fear change or even resist it. But PDP has wobbled and fumbled for too long that any alternative becomes palatable. We have seen similar situations all over the world where seemingly impregnable parties were kicked out of power become the people were just tired and totally bored with the shenanigans of their reckless leaders. It is in the character of human beings to crave what they have not tried. Barack Obama was lucky to arrive at that point when the Americans saw no redeeming grace in George Bush Jnr and his gang producing better governance in America. Their volcanic anger beclouded whatever prejudice they might have had against a Black candidate.

All it takes for APC to turn its current misfortune and the debacle in Ekiti around is for its leaders to rise up to the challenge and stop fighting like babies whose lollipops have been confiscated. Nigeria is bigger than their personal interests or vaunting ambitions. There is no better time for the opposition to take power in Nigeria. Only they can use their own hands to throw this great opportunity into the ocean of stupidity. I will now go on to illustrate what APC needs to do quickly to become more acceptable to most Nigerians yearning for change.

Perception is very key in politics and life in general. The impression of many people today is that there is no difference between PDP and APC. They wonder why they should migrate from one evil to another. APC has not done enough to disabuse the minds of such people. As a matter of fact, APC missed the boat when it failed to rejuvenate itself during the recent national convention which was nearly aborted due to all manner of in-fighting and intrigue. Not just that, APC came out as a very conservative and unambitious party by not putting forward its brightest stars as national officers. The Party did not take advantage of its youths. APC should have borrowed a leaf from the British Labour Party which had been out in the cold until new whiz kids like Tony Blair emerged on centre stage. New Labour has continued its stride through the Milibands and the Conservative Party is not left out with a charismatic leader like David Cameron. The youth and charm of Nick Clegg, the British Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats is also remarkable.

Those who packaged the present concoction for APC did not do well at all. It created doubts in the minds of admirers like us about the sincerity of the Party that claims to represent change. What we saw on display was the antithesis of transformation. What they dumped on Nigeria was uninspiring and lacklustre. We must tell the leadership the home truth because they raised our hopes to high heavens only to play into the hands of their detractors. If this trend persists, APC is likely to come up with candidates far worse than what we think we have at the moment. That would be tragic.

APC seems unwilling to try new skills. They are behaving like soccer teams who play Brazilian style of football against Brazil. Nothing could be more foolhardy. The strength of APC should be in its ability to take on new challenges and launch fresh offensives. The attempt to play politics the way it has always been in Nigeria can only end up disastrously. APC will never win at the centre if it does not show sufficient evidence of what differentiates it from PDP. Our people want to see a metamorphosis in policies, principles, direction and above all, leadership.

APC must bury its many hatchets and reconcile with everyone who has a positive and refreshing attitude to politics in order to present a common front. I’m baffled that Tinubu and Tom Ikimi’s personal altercations are turning sour for the Party by the way they are washing their dirty linen in public. Tom Ikimi was one of the ACN leaders who midwifed APC. Yet the same APC has suddenly realised how close Ikimi was to General Sani Abacha. If I were a copywriter for PDP I will have more than enough scripts to pen out of the present verbiage being churned out against one of their own.

The same thing is going on in Ogun State where Governoir Ibikunle Amosun and former Governor Olusegun Osoba are locked in a gladiatorial war of attrition. The story is not different in Borno and Ekiti where some party leaders are missed at supposed shabby treatment. The shame of all this is that these battles are private and are not rooted in developmental quests. It is not a good sign for APC. It is as if PDP has succeeded in injecting its own poison of indiscipline into APC. Only a bewitched party would start its journey on such chaotic note.

APC must kill all sentiments and return to the path of sanity. Its leaders must be prepared to sacrifice individual ambitions and support their best materials to succeed. The next Presidential election is not going to be easy. The Party stands no chance unless it fields a Presidential candidate and Vice who can ignite the passion of novelty and freshness in our youths. Its general candidates at the other polls must also fire the same imagination and innovation. The traditional voters are too few and totally rigid to give APC the required figures to win at the polls. The Party should search far and wide for accomplished and respectable Nigerians and give us a semi-shadow cabinet to look forward to. With the right balance, APC will be able to galvanise first time voters into coming out en masse. Over 70 percent of them are still floating and undecided at this moment.

If APC makes the mistake of fielding its usually predictable leaders, things are likely to end up the same way they’ve always been in the past. The impression that the Party is limited to, and owned by, a few people should be erased speedily. It hurts so many of their sympathisers that the Party is handled like a private company of few shareholders. This is why many of its former godsons are beginning to rebel. They are frustrated that they have no say in a Party they love so much. They are embarrassed at the abuse of democracy by those who ought to be the custodians of egalitarianism. Everyone is worried that Nigeria may be saddled with another four years of gross incompetence of the ruling government and they hold APC absolutely responsible for this tragic possibility.

The leadership of APC needs to wake up immediately from its self-induced coma for the sake of future generations. The party appears inebriated by the initial support it received when it was conceived as an amalgamation of positive, powerful, fresh and old politicians. APC needs something similar to smelling salts to wake it up from its deep slumber. The Party must not take Nigerians for granted. Nigerians have been patient and tolerant enough.

It is hard to imagine where Nigeria is headed with the present mess. It is harder to accept another four years of no light, no water, no education, no infrastructure, no security, no jobs and no finesse plus the complete collapse of our core values. Simply put, we’ve never had it so bad. In its present limitations, APC represents the only option we can explore because PDP has been in power for far too long to change its way of doing things. The fall of PDP may finally convince our leaders that failure would not always be tolerated and promoted.

That is the hope and attraction that APC holds out to many of us.

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APC, Please Get Serious