I won’t beg Tinubu for appointment, says – Dele Momodu
Dele Momodu, veteran journalist and one-time campaign director for former presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party Abubakar Atiku, has vowed he wouldn’t “beg” President Bola Tinubu for an appointment.
“Some people expect me, in the typical Nigerian fashion, to go cap in hand to President Tinubu, and beg for political appointment. By God’s grace, they shall wait forever,” Momodu said.
Moody says Tinubu does not have to show to him such magnanimity. “Since I contributed nothing to his “success”, I cannot expect to be a beneficiary,” he affirmed.
Momodu’s comment is distilled from his post he published on Facebook, with an old picture of himself hugging Tinubu, now Nigeria’s President.
The celebrity journalist claimed he had always being inundated with questions on why he didn’t support President Tinubu during the electioneering. This is not the first time he would state publicly his grouse against Tinubu.
In his latest comment, Momodu gave a raft of excuses for his choosing Atiku over Tinubu.
“I love my independence and freedom from political servitude,” he said.
He added: “I’m a member of PDP and see nothing salutary or attractive or tempting in APC, a party that has plunged Nigeria into mass destruction and complete annihilation.
Momodu, who publishes ‘Ovation’ magazine, also believes Nigeria is in “desperate” need of his types to “always speak truth to friends and foes in power.”
As he said, political leaders in Nigeria fail because they are “permanently swamped by hungry, or plainly wicked, or irredeemably greedy sycophants.”
TheCornet reports that Momodu had contested and lost the presidency in 2011 under the auspices of the National Conscience Party (NCP).
He would later join the Labour Party, which he also left. In 2023, Momodu signified his intention to take another shot at the presidency. This time around under the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He however didn’t make it to the primaries, settling for a rather compensatory appointment as director of media, in charge of strategic communications, for the Atiku presidential campaign.
In the buildup to the 2023 election, Momodu got into exchanging brickbat with Festus Keyamo, while they were both spokespersons for the two leading presidential candidates. Keyamo, now minister of aviation, had queried Momodu for vacillating, citing an earlier opinion piece in which he (Momodu) praised Tinubu.
In his risposte to Keyamo, Momodu said Tinubu “desperately wants to be President of Nigeria, by fire by force.” He added that Tinubu had lost “most of his formidable foot soldiers, and now relying on outsiders to activate and actualise his lifelong ambition for him.”
Tinubu eventually trounced Atiku in the poll.
