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.
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.
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,
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
