• Talks About His Plans
Bashorun Dele Momodu is a newsmaker any day, anytime. He celebrates other people and he also gets celebrated. A few weeks ago, news broke that Dele who is Ovation Publisher was set to join the 2023 presidential race. The news was that he was under pressure, to run for the presidency as he did a few years ago.
Once the news broke, City People Magazine put a call across to him to confirm and to get him to talk about his grand plans for 2023.
Last Wednesday, he granted City People Publisher SEYE KEHINDE an interview during which he explained why he joined the PDP and not APC. He also spoke about his plans for 2023.
Below are excerpts of his 2-hour interview with the Ovation Publisher who joined the PDP months back.
A lot of people were surprised a few months back when you joined the PDP and not APC. It came as a big shock and many wondered why you took the dramatic move.
I number my days, as recommended by the Holy Book, The Bible. Every day I remove one day from my lifespan. And I realise I am not getting any younger. I will be 62 this year and I am not happy with the state of things in my country. And I have always recommended to the younger ones, that if they must make any appreciable impact, in politics, they must join mainstream political parties, especially if you have the ambition of contesting at the national level. You cannot win a national election from a fringe political party. That is my first theory.
When I contested the presidential election in 2011, that was the revelation that I got and I have recommended it to so many people and I am not hypocritical in my life. I practice what I preach.
Talking about my decision to join PDP, it was obvious that APC has been a monumental failure in my view. That is my personal view. Pres. Buhari, a lot of people will agree, has been less than fair to Nigeria and he has not also been fair to his own people. I have a lot of Hausa-Fulani friends who feel so disappointed in him, who believe that Buhari has turned them into endangered Species because Buhari has not been (1) a fair-minded leader and (2) a competent leader.
So, people now think all Fulani’s are the same. I don’t agree. I have a lot of Fulani friends across the nation and I know that they are intelligent, they are smart. Yes, you may have the Almanjeris, you may have those who are not educated. If Buhari had been a good leader, this would have been the best opportunity to educate those kids. But he doesn’t seem to care about their well-being and their politicians don’t seem to care. They feel they would continue to use those kids to rig elections, to bring underaged to come and vote.
That is the reason I had to go to the PDP. So, I have to be practical. There are only 2 main political parties at the national level in Nigeria, APC and PDP. Since APC has failed why should I join the party of failures? So, I decided to join PDP.
PDP also had its own issues in the past. But our job is to go into one of the parties and try to see how we can proliferate it with progressive-minded people and turn things around for our country. It is the same advice I gave Kingsley Moghalu he didn’t take it. I gave the same advice to Donald Duke before the 2019 elections. He joined NPC, and he was hoping for a 3rd force, I told him a 3rd Force will not fly. Even in the United States where independent candidacy is allowed, Donald Trump was smart enough to know that he couldn’t win with all his billions. He had to go into a particular political party. That was why he joined the Republicans.
It is the same thing with M.K.O. Abiola. He was very smart. He joined the SDP in those days. He worked very hard. Within 2 months, he became the flagbearer of the party. He was able to dislodge the Almighty Baba Gana Kingibe who was the Chairman of the party and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who was the godson of the don himself, Maj. General Sheu Musa Yar’Adua, now of blessed memory.
We are following in that tradition of doing things the proper way, the practical way.
So, nobody should be surprised. The only surprise is that I have always been in opposition. And I am still in opposition. It is nothing unusual.
The truth of the matter is that now I feel we can no longer be on the sidelines. We can no longer afford to be on the sidelines because the excuse of the older generation is that we are the ones not coming forward to contest.
They will say it’s your fault now. You guys are not making yourself available, so how can you blame us. You cannot say Atiku is old and not give an alternative. Now, we are giving them the alternatives and if they like, reject the alternatives again.
At least, nobody will say there were no alternatives, that is why we have to field an 80-year-old man. That is my mission in politics. That is my mission in PDP.
Since you joined PDP, what has been the feedback? Has anything changed?
A lot has changed. I have seen a lot of excitement. Number one, a lot of young guys who ordinarily will not show interest in politics, have been registering. Because I have started campaigning and I have started telling them to go to I am PDP.com. I have been doing that and a lot of people are registering for my party. Beyond that, a lot of people who were agitating for a break up of the country, including my friends who are Biafrans, have calmed down a bit. They are saying if people like you can be in government maybe there will be hope for Nigeria. So, you can see why people are agitating. It is simple. Because there is no Justice, no Equity, no Fair play. You can’t blame them. If people feel frustrated they want to go away. For me, I am very happy that we are going to challenge the status quo. I am not afraid to challenge the status quo. I have been in the system since 1982. A lot of the people who are there now, including governors, some of them were in Primary & Secondary School when some of us started life.
Look, I was a pioneer JAMBITE in 1978. I witnessed the Ali-Must-Go in 1978. So you can imagine someone who was born in 1978. Recently, a 35-year-old man became President somewhere.
By next year June 12 will be 30 years. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar will have been contesting for 30 years by next year. It is laughable. And then, yet, some people are still looking at me, a 61-year-old man, going on to 62, as a boy. I mean, to me, I feel insulted, when I hear those things. I am a global brand.
I have worked all my life. I am far, far better than many of those who lead us today. We have seen the example of MKO Abiola. We have seen the example of Donald Trump. They were never a Senator, Governor before they won. Because you have never been a Governor or Senator nobody respects you here in Nigeria. I have never seen a country like this before.
Nigerians must learn the best from elsewhere. We always copy the worst from other places.
READ ALSO: WHY A LAGOSIAN MUST BE THE NEXT LAGOS GOVERNOR – ABDUL-AZEEZ OLAJIDE ADEDIRAN
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