Dele Momodu Faults Advocates of Northern Presidency, Says Southerner Can Win in 2023

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

 Ovation Publisher and  presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dele Momodu, has faulted the argument that no Southerner can win the 2023 presidential election.

Momodu, who yesterday paid the N40 million Nomination fee and Expression of Interest forms of the PDP presidential ticket, said that it was a fallacious statement to claim that the Southern aspirants of the party cannot win the next year presidential election.

He also appealed to the  PDP to hearken to the cries of Nigerians for a new type of leadership and not a rehash and regurgitation of the same monied class or cabals who have nothing but calamitous corruption, monumental misery and unprecedented disaster to offer the unfortunate citizens.

Momodu said that the world had already left Nigeria way behind as a result of its addiction to narcoleptic leadership and the inability to exorcise the demons of democracy, saying, “We can rid ourselves of the manacles and shackles of the depressive state and oppressive nature created by much vaunted purported political demigods and warlords.”

Addressing journalists in Abuja yesterday, Momodu said, “Let me quickly respond to the unfortunate suggestion that no Southern candidate can win the presidential election. This is a total fallacy based on absolute distortion of facts of history and Mathematics.

“In 1979, Alhaji Shehu Shagari of NPN polled 5,688,857 votes (42.37%) to defeat Chief Obafemi Awolowo of UPN at 4,916,551 (36.61%), Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of NPP at 2,822,523 (21.02%) with a grand total of 13,427,93 votes. Thus, had the South stayed united, Shagari would not have been the President,” he said.

He continued, “In 1983, with alleged widespread electoral fraud, Alhaji Shehu Shagari of NPN polled 12,047,648 (47.33%) to defeat Chief Obafemi Awolowo of UPN at 7,885,434 (30.98%), Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of NPP at 3,534,633 (13.89%), Alhaji Hassan Yusuf of PRP at 1,037,481 (4.08%), Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim of GNPP at 640,128 (2.51%) Dr. Tunji Braithwaite of NAP at 308,842 (1.21%) with a grand total of 25,454,166 votes.

“In 1993, Chief MKO Abiola of SDP polled 8,341,309 (58.36%) to defeat Alhaji Bashir Tofa of NRC at 5,952,087 (41.64%) with a grand total of 14,293,396.

“In 2003, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo of PDP polled 24,456,140 (61.94%) and defeated Major General Muhammadu Buhari of ANPP at 12,710,022 (32.19%).

“In 2011, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan of PDP at 22,495,187 (58.87%) defeated Major General Muhammadu Buhari of CPC at 12,214,853 (31.97%) and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu of ACN at 2,079,151 (5.44%). Both Northern candidates together did not obtain 50% of the votes,” Dele Momodu  explained

Consequently, he said that “It is obvious from the foregoing, that Southern candidates have regularly won elections in Nigeria albeit with support from the North. President Buhari had lost twice to Southern candidates despite the seeming cult followership that he enjoyed in the North.

“It is clear to me that there is no PDP aspirant from the North today who enjoys half of Buhari’s fanatical support, yet Buhari was only able to win at his fourth attempt in 2015 because of the massive support from the South.

“We all know what happened in 2019 and why it seems that the North could go it alone. With recent electoral reforms, it is clear to me that those manipulated and skewed figures will not occur again,” he stressed.

He said that the last elected president of PDP was a Southerner, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan while the last contested PDP candidate was a Northerner, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, whom he supported wholeheartedly and voluntarily.

Momodu said that the current serving President Muhammadu Buhari, against whom Alhaji Atiku contested against, is of Northern Fulani descent, adding that therefore, the two main political parties fielded Northerners in 2019 and the heavens did not fall.

Accordingly, Momodu said that the South supported the candidacy of one or the other Northerner, without protest or complaint, stressing, “I see no reason that cannot be the case in respect of a decision by the two main parties to field Southern candidates in the upcoming 2023 elections.”

According to the publisher turned politician, “Indeed, it is very right and sensible to do so in view of the serious agitations for a breakup of Nigeria into several nations.

“I have made wide, extensive and positive visits and consultations to every Region of Nigeria and have felt the pulse of our nation. The general consensus is that our party, PDP, should seize the opportunity of a fresh leader from the South to take over from the octogenarian Muhammadu Buhari and offer Nigeria a new lease of life and novel kind of leadership that fits the modern 21st Century world in a digital, technological and knowledge driven generation.

“Age, integrity, competence, capacity, technology, exposure and cosmopolitanism are major attributes that a good leader must possess in the 21st Century,” he explained. 

Under the circumstances, he said, “I am more than fully qualified and stand tall amongst all those who are presently aspiring for the highest position of leadership in our land.”

Momodu highlighted some challenges facing Nigeria today to include, disunity and distrust among the various ethnic groups in Nigeria to inequality, spiraling inflation, disruptions to academics through incessant strikes by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), insecurity, less career and job opportunities, fewer considerations for women and youths in governance, poor medicare, escalated corruption and profligacy in government and dwindling economic prospects in the entire landscape.

However, he explained that all these and more will be adequately addressed in his masterplan and policy document to be released soon.