My Encounters with Dele Momodu in Pendulum

GUEST COLUMNIST BY SANI SA’IDU BABA

My dear country men and women, I am highly honoured to feature as a guest writer in one of Africa’s most famous weekly columns, the Pendulum, powered by one of Africa’s most prominent figures, Dr Dele Momodu. He is Bob Dee to some, and to others, he is the famous Bashorun. Dele Momodu is many things in one, including occupying the prestigious position of Aare of Iwoland. He is the diagnostic machine of Nigeria’s in house crisis. It is a great privilege to be very close to this enigma called Chief Dele Momodu, and I am proud to be a partaker of this privilege. He once described my closeness to him as ‘close enough to be counted as a member of my family’.

I started reading his weekly Pendulum in ThisDay on Saturday about seven years ago during the clamour to change former President Goodluck Jonathan with President Muhammadu Buhari. He was a strong advocate of the then prospective president and his change mantra. I had remained an ardent reader of the column ever since, even after he found a reason to part ways with this government, and even when he decided to go on self-induced sabbatical from speaking truth to power. Over time, I’ve come to realize that Dele Momodu has gone far, not only in his chosen line of endeavour, but also in expressing his love for Nigeria and Africa, dating back to about four decades, culminating in throwing his hat in the ring to contest the presidency in 2011.

Those who know him have labeled him a true nationalist, astute politician, kind-hearted philanthropist, successful businessman and vintage game changer. He works round the clock to realize a united Nigeria from his corner. Momodu’s views on today’s government, no doubt, have remained a focal point in today’s Nigerian political space, especially as expressed every Saturday in Thisday and The Boss Newspaper among other feeder media.

Meanwhile, the turning point of my becoming an ardent follower of his weekly pendulum, was my coming in contact with a particular article, which to the best of my rating, remains the most profound ever. The article was captioned “Buhari versus Jonathan – In search of Mathematicians,” and published on October 18, 2014. In the article, he precisely permutated and calculated how Buhari would win the presidency. It came out as accurately as he had predicted.

Before I go into the meat of what I can conveniently call an epistle, I will make a sincere confession that arguably reflects that of discerning minds. Dele Momodu is one of Nigeria’s most detribalized citizens today. My own father once told me that if at least one of Momodu’s likes are seconded to every state, or if Momodu will be in a leadership position, Nigeria would never be this divided. He is known to be very consistent on issues concerning his country.

I must make bold to say that, by my knowledge of him, he does not in any way dislike President Muhammadu Buhari as a person or the North as an entity. This is evident in his critical opinions of all and sundry including Mr. President and geo-political regions. Besides, it is highly unlikely that someone with over 20-30 years credential of maintaining a perfect friendship with famous Northerners like Aliko Dangote, Kashim Imam Ibrahim, Abdussamad Rabiu, Nasiru Ado Bayero, and the families of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Wazirin Atiku Abubakar, Yar’Adua, Sani Abacha, Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, Aliyu Gusau, Bamanga Tukur, Solomon Lar, Mai Deribe, Olusola Saraki, Sunday Awoniyi, David Jemibewon, Terry Waya, etc will hate their region. His Ovation International magazine has been a veritable platform for uniting, entertaining and informing African families in over a quarter of a century. His networks are second to none.
The naysayers in his political and social sojourn are wont to accuse him of being selective, holding on the unconfirmed agenda that he only focuses on the negatives, as opposed to the positives of the Buhari administration. Well, that is far from the truth.

From the private conversations that I have had with him recently, if he hated Buhari, there are certain narratives that he would have since written about him, which he refused to do, even after being encouraged to do so by many people in Nigeria. In any event, there are several published articles Bob Dee had written, directly or indirectly, in defence of the president in the past, and a simple search on Google is enough to vindicate him. He has consistently promoted the daily activities of President Buhari on his powerful platforms since 2015 despite his open disapproval of Buhari’s style of Leadership. The indisputable fact remains that he supported Buhari against his fellow Southerner, Jonathan, simply because of his feelings that Nigeria deserved better, especially when the then-president was recklessly leading the country. There was no option other than President Buhari in 2015. And he felt disappointed by Buhari’s sluggishness and divisiveness, Momodu wasted no time in apologising publicly for supporting him. This is a rarity in our climes.

Every regular reader of the Pendulum knew that Dele Momodu is much concerned about youth leadership. However, he clarified that the Nigerian Youth is only agitating to grab power without following the appropriate roadmap and processes. The truth is, unless the Youth wake up and strive, we will continue to be used by the old breed to clinch powerful positions and continue to relegate the young population to the backbench. And the fundamental solution lies in the Youth joining either of the mainstream political parties, not any nebulous third force. And they must also change their holier-than-thou attitude of seeking only saints in politics. He said, “If the youth remain impracticable and insist on repeating the same mistakes of contesting on multiple platforms, it would be good riddance to bad rubbish” as captured in the Pendulum titled “the mistakes Nigerians must not repeat in 2023”.

I am highly convinced, beyond reasonable doubt, that the solution to Nigeria’s predicaments lies in the suggestions made in this article. On this basis, I named Dele Momodu as the diagnostic machine of the Youth and Nigeria’s problems. He knows exactly what the Youth will have to do to liberate themselves and be part of the decision-making process. Nevertheless, four of his articles, including “Are Nigerian Youths Ready to Run or to Rant”, September 8, 2018; “Lessons from my Presidential Bid of 2011” published on April 11, 2020; “The Atiku Challenge Nigerian Youths Must Accept”, October 23, 2021, and more recently, “My thoughts on the 2023 Presidential Election”, December 18, 2021, are superlative enough to educate the Youths on their imminent power in the political space. I am always fascinated by Momodu’s endless passion for mentoring the Youths and seeing them occupy leadership positions in Nigeria.

Human beings are not particularly popular with giving accolades to people who deserve it. If they are compelled to do so, it would have been noticed from the get-go that they are merely following instructions, making motions or being sarcastic. One of the notably fearless, straight forward and moral human beings in Nigeria that, based on my understanding, would never be compelled to call black, white, in the name of personal interest is Dele Momodu. Perhaps, he has never been compromised by any of his friends, including those within the corridor of power today. He believes that “you should never become Nigeria’s leader simply based on where you come from but by what you have to offer in nation-building. Rotation and zoning are largely responsible for the proliferation of poor and preposterous leadership in Nigeria,” he said in his article titled “What exactly are we restructuring?”

While Bob Dee is being ostracized today by some people who used to praise him and were even fond of the choice adjectives he had used in criticizing President Jonathan, there is a lesson which we could learn from this turn of events. When he made posts via his social media handles or published articles against the Buhari administration, he had a barrage of likes and praises, mostly from bigots from the Nigerian South. The same happened during the infamous reign of Goodluck Jonathan. His criticism of Jonathan became the index for which he was endeared to bigots in the Nigerian North who have sworn, for reasons best known to them, to never like Jonathan in their lives.

If anything, what we have learnt from the Buhari, and Jonathan administrations are that intransigent bigots exist from both the Nigerian North and South. Bigots from both sides have now been well identified, as we now know them by their fruits. In the future, serious-minded Nigerians should not take the intransigent Buharists or the intransigent Jonathanians seriously. There are brilliant Nigerians with well-balanced senses of judgment from all the different sections of the country. He could engage in a non-bigoted and civil discussion about contemporary Nigerian events and personalities.

In the edition of July 18, 2020, titled “Is the President Aware this House is Falling” and January 24, 2021, titled “Who Shall Tell the President Nigeria is Dying” and a lot more, he lamented bitterly about both moral and intellectual decay of the bond that united Nigerians as a nation, with particular reference to security, corruption, promotion of mediocrity at the expense of people with great ideas, nepotism, and favouritism. In another weekly Pendulum, he petitioned President Buhari about several issues of national concern, unity of the country included. This he did without fear, for indeed, he was convinced that he was fighting for the truth.

In the opening part of the article, he made it clear that Nigeria is dying. He particularly mentioned that ‘Fellow Nigerians please take note of the title of my column this week. I did not say Nigerians are dying. That is stale news, as well as an understatement. My focus is that the country called Nigeria is dying. I do not know what sort of security briefing President Muhammadu Buhari, regularly or periodically receives from his reticent and incompetent security team. I doubt it includes the fact that Nigeria is speeding towards a monumental collapse unless a miracle or something drastic is done to stop this supersonic drift towards perdition”.

However, the likes of these articles had generated a lot of negativity, including the accusation that he always attacks the government. There is no compelling moral force that says that to be objective in your arguments, you must strike a balance between support and opposition or praise and criticism, especially in a democratic setting. That is an argument for the unintelligent. How is preference or speciality a problem, and how does this make a person less objective? We are at liberty to choose whether to focus on the positives or the negatives of every situation in life.

What then is there to report about the positives of any government in the world since they have not sent men to land in Jupiter for an economically profitable expedition? For example, what is there to report if the president is constructing roads and hospitals for his subjects, a duty for which he swore to do, and for which he is being paid to do, and for which, ultimately, our legal status as citizens grants us a social responsibility to hold him accountable? What is objective is for us to be truthful in what we say, and do, about whosoever we choose to criticize or praise. Therefore, there are no problems for me if Bob Dee focuses on the negatives of the Buhari administration, provided he is telling the truth about the administration.

Dele Momodu initially began to give up, to the extent that he declared to go on voluntary sabbatical on January 25, 2020, from advising and telling the government of today the truth, before his more than three decades of the tireless spirit of patriotism made him rethink. He wrote with the hope that the government would take prompt measures to restore the confidence of the Nigerian people in the leadership and re-establish a more respectable administrative machinery in the various sectors in the country.

However, even though I believe in Dele Momodu’s integrity and neutrality, I am still worried and uncomfortable with some of his views, for a reason. We could recall that he offered himself as a voluntary advisor to President Buhari free of charge and promised to tell him the truth that his paid advisors and others in the corridors of power might not. What better way could he have used to show his selfless nature and high sense of patriotism? But as a high-profile personality that every president would want to acquire in their camp, Dele Momodu did not find time to visit the president for verbal talks about issues in the country. The first time he was in the Villa since the president was sworn in 2015 was when he was invited. The second time was when he accompanied his friend to the Villa, the former president of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama. So, he has virtually met with president Buhari just two times, unless maybe at functions.

How sure is he that the power mongers would allow the president to read his concerns, as contained in the Pendulum?
Moreover, I know most of my worries were born out of Momodu’s misunderstanding of the Hausa/Fulani or the actual state of their situation in the North. I believe that could only be why he has consistently thought that Hausa/Fulani have been over-pampered in Nigeria. Let me make it categorically clear that Hausa/Fulani suffered the most under Buhari than any other ethnic group in Nigeria. Perhaps why it surprises me whenever the marginalization accusations start anywhere.

The main event of April 10, 2021, that set the political and media spaces agog in Nigeria was his article titled “The truth my Fulani friends must accept”. Chief Dele claimed that the Fulani have been over-pampered in Nigeria, which based on my understanding, is unfounded. So funny that many people called me to ask about the fate of my relationship with him over his statement. He said, “Next is the overbearing Fulani attitude of cornering every important position in the government. This will always be a source of friction. It is not feasible or sustainable in the long term, and the Fulani being in the minority, will eventually be the losers. They should realize that their champion, Buhari, has over-acted and overreached himself by his apparent Fulanisation agenda”. With all due respect, Sir, anybody who knows the actual situation in the North would immediately have this statement dismissed. Besides, you did not raise the alarm, Sir, when your very dear friend Babatunde Fashola or Lagos State was over-pampered when he, alone, was assigned as the minister of three critical ministries combined.

I can boldly say that the North suffered more than any other region under Buhari. There is so much poverty in the North, yet we have a Northerner as President. Buhari’s presidency has not been of benefit to the North. What is even most painful to us in the North is that while we are suffering this much, people in the South are accusing us of marginalizing them while we are, in fact, suffering. That is also fuelled by the reckless leadership of the Northern governors. I highly support Momodu’s view in his article “The truth Northern Nigerian leaders must accept, February 27, 2021”.

Nonetheless, in particular, Fulanis are even worst affected because they are treated as third-class citizens. They are far away from development or benefit from the government. The Fulanis who lost their cattle to crises represent the proverb that says an idle man is a devil’s workshop. This is based on my understanding of the genesis of the issues with Fulani today. The fact is, many Nigerians no longer distinguish between Fulani and Boko Haram, seeing both as a singular entity whose sole aim is to Islamize Nigeria, which is not valid. Even Boko Haram’s aim is seemingly a conspiracy to blackmail Islam. The incursion of Fulani herders from other West African states, such as Niger, Mali, Cameroon, and Chad, also has complicated issues.

On the other hand, Southerners have reacted to the perceived Islamization and Fulanization by forming regional vigilante outfits such as AMOTEKUN in the South-West and IPOB’S Eastern Security Network in the South-East, all supported by their governors. This expectedly provoked retaliatory actions from Northern political groups such as the Miyetti ALLAH. This was the genesis of the hate as you claimed, Sir, but the North were highly resilient.

Highly creative and perfectly out of the box thinker, Momodu deserves to be qualified with his most preferred phrase for anyone he feels has the capacity and capability of moving men and materials – ‘Capo di Tutti Capi’. Surely, Momodu is a Capo di Tutti Capi of our time. The misconceptions, inadequacies and controversies surrounding his person notwithstanding.
I doff my cap for the man who has the capacity to unite Nigeria.

•Dr Sani Sa’idu Baba is a scholar from Kano.