Category: Opinion

It is an irony that the two leading Yoruba personages in pubic space today may not share similar view of the future. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the energetic retired President of the Republic has stated his objective clearly: he does not want President Muhammadu Buhari to run for a second term because of what he considers Buhari’s disastrous record in managing the nation’s security. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the political genius who created the All Progressives Congress, APC, from an amalgam of disparate groups. He is an ally of Buhari whom he helped installed in power in 2015. Whether Buhari remains his ally is another matter.
Obasanjo was brought up to distrust politicians. In contrast, Tinubu grew into politics under the wings of the formidable Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji, the legendary amazon who as the leader of Lagos market men and women, was a deciding factor in Lagos politics for several decades. The 2019 elections would be a litmus test for both Tinubu and Obasanjo and both have shown capacity for national relevance. Both of them fought the last general elections in 2015 as strong allies of President Muhammadu Buhari. 2019 may be decidedly different.
As a young subaltern of the new Nigerian Army, Obasanjo was drafted into the Congo, where the politicians, Patrice Lumumba, the Prime Minister and Josef Kasavubu, the President, disagreed on how to govern the newly independent country. One day Obasanjo was captured by rebel soldiers. He was miraculously escaped execution. He returned to Nigeria later only to meet a country messed up by politicians until the soldiers, led by his bosom friend, Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, ended the life of the First Republic during the first coup on January 15, 1966. Nzeogwu had opened the Pandora box.

Worse days were to come. The soldiers could not manage what they inherited and like the Congo, Nigeria was plunged into a civil war and Obasanjo again found himself on the war front as the General Officer Commanding the Third Marine Commando Division. One day he drove into an ambush, was wounded and carried the scar till today. When his friend and boss, General Murtala Muhammed was killed during the abortive coup of February 13, 1976, Obasanjo became Nigerian ruler “against my personal wish and desire.”
He did the uncommon when he handed over power to elected President Shehu Aliyu Shagari on October 1, 1979, leading the military back into the barracks. One day he attended the Council of States meeting in Doddan Barracks which the politicians have renamed State House Ribadu Road Ikoyi. Shagari tabled the government’s effort to tackle wide spread hunger in the land by setting up a Presidential Task Force for Rice Importation. Obasanjo flared up, calling Shagari a shameless President. “You are not ashamed to eat rice grown by farmers of other countries!” he growled at the President. “You cannot set up a Presidential Task Force to grow rice!”
It was to be the beginning of Obasanjo clash with his successors.The new path was to ultimately lead him into prison and ultimately back to power when he returned as an elected President 20 years after he retired as military ruler. After eight tumultuous years, he installed his successor, President Umar Musa Yar’Adua who died in office and was succeeded by his Vice-President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Obasanjo clashed with Jonathan, and helped to install his former officer, Buhari, in his stead. Now he has taken on Buhari and that is pitting him against Tinubu who in their brief romance, once described Obasanjo as the national “navigator” of the impossible alliance that Tinubu cobbled together to bring Buhari to power.
Though Tinubu has been restrained in criticizing Obasanjo, there is no doubt that the romance is over. Tinubu’s odyssey has taken a different path from that of Obasanjo. He came into national prominence when became one of the leading lights of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, during the closing days of General Ibrahim Babangida ultimately futile transition programme. He was one of the youngest members elected into the Senate and when the June 12 crisis exploded on the national stage, he was one of the most trusted supporters of Chief Moshood Abiola. In the wake of the crisis, he fled into exile becoming one of the leaders and financiers of the external wing of the opposition National Democratic Coalition, NADECO.
The struggle against the dictator, General Sani Abacha, who had imprisoned Obasanjo and many other opposition figures, put him and Tinubu on the same side. By the dawn of the new republic in 1999, Obasanjo was President in Abuja and Tinubu governor in Lagos. They were to clash several times, including over Tinubu’s attempt to create new local government areas in Lagos. Obasanjo was of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, while Tinubu was the Alliance for Democracy, AD, governor of Lagos State which in alliance with the All Peoples Party, APP, had fielded Chief Olu Falae, the only opponent of Obasanjo at the 1999 presidential election. Both Tinubu and Obasanjo left power at the same time in 2007 but have remained in politics since then. The 2015 general elections was the first time both of them would be playing on the same team. They won. Now the brief flirtation seems to be over.

What is at stake may be more than the job of Buhari. Since Obasanjo left power, there have been a stirring in the land which has now grown into a loud chorus that Nigeria needs to restructure its polity. In the beginning, many of the leading lights of the APC, especially the old ACN faction headed by Tinubu, had claimed ownership of this movement for restructuring. Its members spearheaded the publication of The Yoruba Agenda which called for the grouping of the Federation into more viable regions with the states of Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Ogun and Lagos constituting one region. When the Jonathan Constitutional Conference recommended the same panacea, it was felt that the politicians were reaching something close to a consensus on the matter. However, since Buhari got to power, there seem to be distaste for new constitutional arrangement among members of the Buhari court.
Neither Obasanjo nor Tinubu has made categorical statement on the kind of future constitutional arrangement they envisioned for Nigeria. However, Obasanjo has been flirting more with Buhari’s opponents who are now claiming ownership of the call for constitutional reforms and restructuring. In the emerging coalition are also disparate forces and seasoned carpetbaggers who seem to be interested more in the juicy fruits of power. The drama is taking new dimensions including the violent participation of shadowy Fulani herdsmen and the terrorist group, Boko Haram. Despite Buhari’s claim to spending billion of naira on security, the army of evil remains active in the Nigerian commonwealth. In the league are the likes of kidnappers, cultists, robbers, drug dealers and peddlers and they appeared emboldened because past perpetrators or seldom caught and rarely punished.
In the struggle to keep Buhari in the saddle or topple him through the ballot box the Buhari coalition would have more than Obasanjo and his team to deal with. The failed romance of Obasanjo and Tinubu is an indication of the slippery terrain of Nigerian politics. More so, it advertises the inability of our President to keep his friends and presides over a far-flung political empire. This is a fundamental flaw on the part of Buhari. A President who cannot keep his friends may hardly be expected to have the wherewithal to win over his foes.

This brilliant and youthful governor truly knows his onions. As a third generation governor of Lagos state post 1999, he has combined the strength, intellect and vision of Tinubu and Fashola before him.

Watching the live coverage of Lagos State 2018 Third Quarter Town Hall Meeting in Ibeju Lekki this morning gives one the positive impression that democracy can work for us if those in leadership position create the right environment for it to work.
I have seen a couple of town hall meetings but I have never seen one that is well organized, well structured and one in which the enthusiastic members of the community were given the opportunity to freely express their fears and expectations from the government. The town hall meeting brings together different members of the community under one roof to meet and interact with government and renew bonds amongst themselves. The beauty of it is that the people speak their minds and the government listens, with the governor and his officials taking notes accordingly. These notes hopefully will inform policy decisions and budget projection. And the governor was free, at home, jovial and promising in his response to questions and suggestions.
Thus more than concrete infrastructural developments across the state being undertaken by the government, this town hall meeting is one area that is bound to sell the governor and his government to the Eko people.
This is wishing the governor a fruitful and memorable tenure.

Dr. Zukogi is of English Dept, BUK, Kano

Sunday June 22nd 2014, I woke up at 7am. I had gone to bed at 3am but did not drift off to sleep till 5am. It was no surprise that I had a dull ache in my head. JKF was already up and getting dressed. I picked up my phone and saw the large number of missed calls and text messages. I put the phone down and called for my morning coffee. I was told that visitors were waiting to see us. I nodded my head but made no move to leave the bedroom. I looked at my phone again and saw that I had just missed a call from Erelu Angela Adebayo, the wife of Otunba Niyi Adebayo, former Governor of Ekiti State, who is one of our political leaders and mentors. If anyone knew exactly how I was feeling that morning, it would be Erelu Adebayo, because her husband also lost his second term bid in 2003.

Saturday June 21st 2014 was a very bad day, one of those days that I referred to recently as Ojo buruku esu bu omi mu -The day the devil came to drink water’. That day, my husband lost his re-election bid. Even though we knew there where disgruntled interest groups and some political associates had left to join another party hereby splitting some of our votes, we did not see a loss coming. JKF worked hard during his first term in office and his administration had a lot to show for it. When he ran for re-election in 2014, he ran on the basis of what he had accomplished and the promise of continuing all the great initiatives that had been started. Even the worst critics of his administration admitted that he accomplished a great deal. However, there was a disturbing narrative that no amount of logic could dislodge. JKF was described as ‘too academic, aloof, stubborn, disconnected, stingy’ and so on. He was not the kind of political leader favoured in our environment. The June 2014 election was like a war in Ekiti State. The election was heavily militarized and many of our party officials were arrested or hounded out of town before the election to prevent them from leading party members to the polls. Through a combination of the role played by the heavy-handed security agencies, the intimidation of voters, and the shady activities of some of the officials at the electoral management body, the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), there was a perfect storm that cost us the election.

That Sunday June 22nd, Erelu Angela who I call ‘Big Sis’, comforted me and as I listened to her kind words I started to cry. I told her that there were a number of visitors out in the living room and I did not want to go out and face them because I did not know what to say to them. She told me to go out and raise their spirits with a song. And that is exactly what I did. I showered, dressed up and walked into the living room looking smart and all smiles, singing a popular Yoruba Christian song, ‘Awa ju asegun lo’ – We are more than conquerors. When the visitors saw that I was not downcast or looking miserable, they attempted to hide their own misery and the atmosphere of gloom improved a bit. As I tried to comfort the women who had come to visit on Sunday June 22nd 2014, I said to them, ‘Our assignment in Ekiti is over. We would have liked to spend 8 years, but now God has told us that we are done for now. He will show us the way. Take heart, God knows best. We have carried out our assignment to the best of our ability. We have a lot to be thankful for. We will not mourn’. I knew I needed to be strong for my husband’s sake, so even if my heart was broken, my spirit was not.

Throughout the day visitors trooped in, and even though I knew they were coming to show solidarity, I did not like the fact that some of them would burst into tears the moment they set eyes on me. The visits continued throughout Sunday and Monday. By Tuesday I could not bear the thought of more delegations coming to ‘mourn’ with us, so I left Ekiti for Ghana and switched off my phone. While I was away, the creepy spokesman for the other side spread a story on social media that I had collapsed and was in hospital. When my friends could not reach me, they panicked. It was a terrible time.

I have alluded to some of the things that transpired after JKF lost the Ekiti election in 2014. Losing an election was not the end of the world as far as I was concerned. What came after was more devastating. People often say failure is an orphan. No, failure is not an orphan, failure is a bastard. People take pity on orphans and offer help and have a sense of obligation towards them. No one pities a bastard, the usual treatment is scorn, derision and ridicule. Trusted friends and colleagues decided to dissociate themselves from us and seek political fortunes elsewhere. That in itself was not a bad thing, but the lies, distortions, character assassination and revisions of history were almost unbearable. The message from all this was clear. JKF was now irrelevant, finished, a persona non grata. Or so they thought. Shortly after, JKF chaired an excellent party convention in December 2014 that produced the Presidential Candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC), he played a key role in the 2015 Presidential Campaign, and he served as a Federal Minister. Not bad for a persona non grata.

Sunday July 15th 2018, I went to bed at 4am and fell asleep at 6am. I was too excited to sleep, but I knew the next day would be a very long one. By 8am our country home was full of guests, including three Governors and their entourages. Everyone was smiling broadly and there was a lot of hugging and back-slapping. By the time JKF was officially declared the Governor-Elect of Ekiti State by the Independent Electoral Commission that morning, there were at least 2,000 people in our compound and the field right beside the house.

There was a wonderful celebration, and as we all sang and danced, the lessons were not lost on anyone. No one knows tomorrow. We don’t know what a new dawn brings, so we should be mindful of our words and actions. Every community has their own version of the story about the pauper who became a prince and the Prince who became a frog. There can be no contestation for power without subversion or disruption. However, it does not mean we have to lose our humanity. When mere mortals forget that they were created by a superior being, they get very forceful reminders. Last week, there was a lot of drama involving the current leadership of Ekiti State which has inspired a range of hilarious memes and videos. They all had the same theme – ‘How are the mighty fallen’. Even if some of us are bad at Arithmetic, we all know 1+1=2. And even if we have never been to a farm, we should know that you can’t plant cassava and harvest yams.

Two Sundays. Two major events in my life. Two totally different outcomes. How do I feel? There are not enough words to describe how I feel, but let me throw out a few -thankful, relieved, grateful, tired, excited, vindicated, forgiving and hopeful. I give thanks to God Almighty for his mercy and favour. I would like to thank all those who provided financial, material, technical, moral and spiritual support. I wish our political space was not as toxic and chaotic as it is now. This needs to change. Meanwhile, let me now take a break and sleep well for the first time in a long time. Tell yourself, ‘I am more than a conqueror because I have faith’.
Have a great week.

Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi is a Gender Specialist, Social Entrepreneur and Writer. She is the Founder of Abovewhispers.com, an online community for women. She can be reached at BAF@abovewhispers.co

By Peter Claver Oparah

When he was manipulated out of power in a bizarre and reckless manner in 2014, it was not certain if Dr. John Kayode Fayemi envisaged that four light years later, he would bounce back in the emphatic manner he did in last Saturday’s Ekiti governorship election. There was no doubt that in that period of madness when impunity was reigning rough shod over all that was decent and desirable, there is every inkling that what beset the minds of Fayemi was the hopelessness and helplessness of the situation that permitted such atrocious brigandage to happen and sweep him out of power. The facts of what happened in Ekiti in 2014 were all too obvious for all Nigerians to take note and the widespread angst and condemnation the Ekiti charade drew stands as eternal damnation to the crudity of the erstwhile Jonathan government and the PDP. That President Buhari should allow for a free, fair and credible election that never required the idiosyncratic oddities that was launched in Ekiti four years ago, shows how much mileage we have made in four short years on our march to right democratic practice.

Four years ago, I guess what was going on in the minds of Kayode Fayemi were hopelessness and despair. Pray, who wouldn’t entertain such thoughts at a system that was brazenly arm-twisted and guided to pervert the democratic wills of the people of Ekiti and implant a governor that stood out for his rebuke to all what Ekiti State stands for? It was certain that what happened to Fayemi was enough to buckle the mind of a less-endowed person, his supporters and friends to give up. What happened in Ekiti four years ago was enough to make apolitical any straw mind. But with Kayode Fayemi, it was the other way round. Here is a sound intellectual, with enough residual strength to last unimaginable distance. Here is a persona imbued with tremendous inner strength to shake off any disappointment and trudge on where others would have easily given up. I had long seen him as a long distance runner that has all the potentials to go the entire long, winding bend and burst out victorious. That was what happened in the days in the trenches; the military days where he was a lodestar in the fight against military rule.

Again, if we recall how Fayemi became a governor, we would know that it was a long and winding battle where he went through the entire legal system several rounds before justice was given him in October 2010. If we try to inquest how he came back as Governor of Ekiti last weekend, we would have in our hands a determined and dogged fighter, an intellectual power house whose resolve and will never give in to such crude bayonets and force that were marshalled by the Jonathan government and PDP to remove him in 2014. There is little doubt that in engaging in these excruciating battles, Fayemi is guided and indeed honed by the stoic Catholic upbringing he was privileged to have had. As an altar boy, it was certain that Fayemi ingrained the tenets of patience, perseverance, virtues and strong morals from both his parents and the priests on whose feet he received his earliest trainings. He holds tenaciously to his Catholicity and is wont to value this as a guiding torch in sitting out the many life battles he had fought.

When he was impudently rigged out of power in 2014, Fayemi did not allow himself to be detained by such setback. Even with the obvious infractions that were deployed to get him out of power, he made no fuss. He accepted the outcome of that mangled poll, peacefully handed to the eventual beneficiary of that charade and projected for the future. He didn’t allow that unfortunate event to seize him as he leveraged his rich intellectual prowess to the eventual task to sever the source of the impunity and cancer that birthed the kind of malady that removed him from power. His deep role in the battle led to his being given one of the critical posts in the ensuing APC administration. When the call for a gubernatorial election in Ekiti came up again, he threw his hat into a crowded ring of galaxy of stars to succeed the embarrassing Fayose regime that was notorious for debasing governance and ridiculing Ekiti State for the four tempestuous years he had been in power. His emergence from that crowded field was seen as many as the real victory in his comeback quest.

Campaigning under the mantra; ‘Reclaiming Our Land, Restoring Our Values’, Fayemi captured the immediate yearning of Ekiti people who were sweating under the hood of Fayose’s maniacal theatrics and wiles. His campaign slogan sparked of the desperate search for a redemptive impetus to free Ekii from an embarrassing and humiliating atrophy which the Fayose governance represents. He tapped into the dominant progressive political hue to pry the hearts and minds of Ekiti voters who were distraught that their state has turned to a theater of absurd parody and butt of demeaning jokes since Fayose came to power. He poached the proud Ekiti man’s desire to undo the trajectory of 2014 that had reduced and indeed blackened his image since 2014. Despite the subterranean moves made to stop him, Fayemi soldiered on and stood strong till the people cast their votes and emphatically returned him to continue from where he was stopped in 2014. The rest, they say, is now history and for the next four years, Ekiti will witness the comeback of serene, deliberate, planned and strategic governance which they asked and voted for.

But then, what stands out in Fayemi’s victory last week is the power of resilience and determination which he packs in abundant quantity. Four years ago, his traducers made merry and kicked him about. Today, they cut a pitiable picture of vassalled goons at his mighty feet. Four years ago, those that borrowed devilish templates to invade Ekiti with all manners of devilry, sow dread and evil to remove him and take over power are wailing sissies today who are contending with the footnotes of a history they are warming its notorious pages. Those that partied and threw confetti to celebrate their unjust conquest have vanished into insignificant imprimaturs of a forgettable history while he straddles Ekiti today like an unconquerable colossus. Those that mocked and derided him four years ago as he gave in to brute and insensate force have been swept down the debris of history while he is the newly-minted man of the moment. Those that toasted unbridled and reckless power four years ago are now contending with insignificant anonymity that threatens to bury them on the quicksand of impunity.

The above scenario reifies the power of truth, the power of principle, the power of steadfastness and the power of integrity. They are embedded deep in the values, the restoration of which fired the desire of Ekiti people to bring Fayemi back. Fayemi is a man of value and this is why he had lasted this long in the Nigerian scene and will still last longer. He is a patient and durable politician that sees far beyond the present. He might not have envisaged that he would come back to power four years after he was manipulated out but in his life, beliefs and principles lies the catalyst for such quick rebound.

Just before he joined the race for the governorship, I had asked him if he was interested in a comeback bid. He had laughed and answered, ‘when we get to the bridge, we will cross it’. Few months later, he had gotten to the bridge and crossed it in such emphatic manner. That is the deep, confident, self-assured long distance runner for you. He is at the rightful cusp of history and there is no doubt that he will not disappoint the confidence imposed on him by Ekiti people. Today, Fayemi is laughing while those that laughed at him four years ago are weeping. What an irony! What a life! He laughs last to enjoy the richest bragging rights embedded in the aphorism that he who laughs last laughs best.

Congratulations Your Excellency and wishing you an eventful reign as Ekiti governor.

Peter Claver Oparah

Ikeja, Lagos.

Being keynote address delivered at the public presentation and launch of Dele Momodu’s books, in honor of Bashorun MKO Abiola

Over the centuries, the phrase “the pen is mightier than the sword” has come to define the power of the written word in statecraft. Those words have since stepped out of the pages of Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s The Conspiracy, a play written in 1839, to become words on marble.

At the heart of this notion of the might of the pen is the idea that the course of a nation or people can be determined at the stroke of a pen. Nations can be built, and nations can be ruined; generations can be made great, and generations can be rendered wasted; civilizations can be birthed, and civilizations can be buried – at the stroke of a pen!

At the stroke of a pen, millions of Africans were “legally” transported across the Atlantic and Mediterranean and became the property of slave owners. At the stroke of a pen, the slave trade was abolished centuries later and emancipation was proclaimed to former slaves, thus formally criminalising an immoral enterprise. At the stroke of a pen, the kingdoms and city states of Africa were partitioned and transformed into the estates of European monarchs. At the stroke of a pen, cultures were dismembered, nations were balkanised, and territories were amalgamated into colonies and protectorates. Decades later, colonies and protectorates became independent states – at the stroke of a pen.

We have seen frameworks become supreme law and proposals become policies that make or break nations; we have seen elections validated or annulled; we have seen presidents sworn in, some by convention, others by the doctrine of necessity – all at the stroke of a pen. Families are consolidated or dissolved, enterprises are incorporated or liquidated, convictions are obtained or upturned, and life and death could hang on a simple but weighty sentence, held in the balance by a pen waiting to be wielded, particularly when the ink that runs through the pen is propelled by the force of the state.

We have also seen world changers who, when the pages of history parted for them to emerge, proceeded on their journeys without the backing of the state and forcefully turned the wheel of civilisation at the stroke of a pen. At the stroke of a pen, the doctrinal chains that held the church and the nations in a stranglehold were dismantled when a German professor of theology, Martin Luther, reminded the world that the just shall live by faith. Here, I am referring to the “Ninety-Five Theses” he nailed to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral in 1517.

At the stroke of a pen, the people of Great Britain began their journey to freedom from the tyranny of monarchy to parliamentary democracy – history calls it the Magna Carta. At the stroke of a pen, the people of the United States declared their independence from the colonising power of the British Crown – they called it the Declaration of Independence. At the stroke of a pen, the people of France broke the spell of an oppressive monarchy and took control of government – history records it as the Declaration of the Rights of the Man and of the Citizen. At the stroke of a pen, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels sparked the flame of revolution among the proletariat of Russia and Eastern Europe – they called it the Communist Manifesto.

The likes of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Kwame Nkrumah, and Chief Obafemi Awolowo, armed with no other weapon, mobilised the Queen’s language in the struggle for independence from the Queen. They fought their battles through such media as West African Pilot, Accra Evening News and The Tribune. Decades after independence, when free, fair and credible elections were annulled, and a tyrannical dictatorship held sway, the Nigerian press took up the baton and contended against the sword of oppression by deploying the armoury of vocabulary. I am so glad that the labours of these pen warriors and all others who fought for the democracy we enjoy today have not been in vain after all.

From now on, any time the name Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola GCFR – Grand Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic – is mentioned with full honours, it is an honour first to the man who paid the supreme price to pave the way for Nigeria’s democracy, and then to the heroes and heroines who stood up behind him, including those in the Fourth Estate of the Realm who marshalled the written and spoken word against tyranny. Indeed, the members of the press who fought for the June 12 mandate were fighting not just for democracy but in defence of one their own, for, amongst his many endeavours, Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola was a media entrepreneur and founder of the African Concord, where Dele Momodu, the man at whose behest we are gathered here today, cut his teeth as a journalist.

I totally agree with Ralph Waldo Emerson that “talent alone cannot make a writer: there must be a man behind the book.” Bashorun Dele Momodu and his ilk have proved themselves over the years to be real men. In addition, by deploying their skill against tyranny, the members of the press have aligned themselves with a biblical truth that recognises authorship as an instrument of battle, because the same God who is militarily presented in Psalm 18:2 as “the horn of salvation” is revealed in Hebrews 5:9 as the “author of salvation.”
My reference to the Bible at this juncture reminds me of Dele Momodu’s desire to be a pastor, which I first heard him express in the course of my 60th birthday celebrations. Pastor Dele, I believe that, even without the benefit of a conventional pulpit, you have already shepherded the nation with the flow of wisdom from your pen. Over the years, I have read your writings and I have seen you not only advising presidents on appropriate courses of action at crucial junctures in our national trajectory, but also warning them on the consequences of inappropriate responses to our national dilemmas. This is the manner of prophets such as the biblical Amos, a “herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs” , whose distinguishing feature, it must be said, was not that he possessed an AK-47. Instead, he was a man to whom the word of God for his nation was revealed when that nation was being misled by a corrupt governmental order.

Dele Momodu, a publisher by profession, who understands that a picture is worth a thousand words, has become a pen prophet by vocation, and a consistent conduit of wise counsel to the leadership of our nation. I am glad to see his writings compiled for the present and posterity in two of the books being launched today. And like Winston Churchill who said “half my life time I have earned my living by selling words, and I hope thoughts”, may Bashorun Momodu prosper by his words and thoughts.
In 2011, when the leaders of our nation failed to heed his counsel and warnings, Dele Momodu could not fold his arms and watch the nation go down the drain. He momentarily dropped his pen and jumped into the fray. As a man irrevocably committed to the people, Dele Momodu pitched his tent with a political party that had been instituted by a defender of the people; a man upon whom the people had already conferred an award no government award could ever match. Dele Momodu aligned himself with the political apparatus instituted by my late boss and mentor, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Senior Advocate of the Masses, later Senior Advocate of Nigeria, and now Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON). While Dele Momodu lost the 2011 presidential election, he didn’t lose the lessons and I am pleased that his experience has been chronicled in the third book being launched today, Fighting Lions: The Untold Story of Dele Momodu’s Presidential Campaign, written by his Campaign Director, Ohimai Godwin Amaize.

I understand that Fighting Lions captures Dele Momodu’s disappointment at the lack of support from his own constituency, the media and entertainment industries, in the 2011 elections. I am pleased to let you know that I am not a brother who is not touched by the feelings of your infirmity, for I also faced the same temptation you did, and so did my friend, Fola Adeola, but the grace of God saw us through.

It is no news that I participated in the same election as running mate to our current president, Muhammadu Buhari. With the negative image associated with the then General Buhari, especially the allegations of religious fundamentalism, being his running mate as a pastor was not an easy task at all. Need I tell you that my strongest critics were from my constituency? To most leaders in the church, aligning with a man they considered an opponent of Christianity against another they considered a Christian was sacrilegious, to say the least. To them, I was a traitor, undeserving of support. Therefore, I understand Dele Momodu’s disappointment. Our experience mirrors that of Joseph who was sold by his brothers because of the dream he had.

However, I do not think that the effort was in vain. Instead, I thank God that I took up the challenge and became a barrier breaker. Four years later, when the mantra became “Anything but Jonathan”, the same church leaders who had said it was inconceivable for a pastor to participate in politics, especially in alignment with a perceived Islamic fundamentalist, ate their words and threw their weight behind the same Muhammadu Buhari, with my brother, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, a pastor at the Redeemed Christian Church of God, as running mate.

I am also aware that, in 2015, the press, represented by the likes of Dele Momodu, played a role in redefining the narrative and presenting to the Nigerian public a Buhari they could relate to. That year, in addition to other things I did in the background to ensure that the will of the people counted irrespective of the outcome, I recall telling the nation of “The Buhari I Know” just to ensure he was given a fair chance untainted by a negative brand image.

Now, three years later, it appears, once again, that the people are experiencing buyer’s remorse. Interestingly, the likes of Dele Momodu and I are being blamed for allegedly packaging the current dispensation. It is, however, necessary to remind the nation that there were warnings. We had warned then that plunging headlong into another election cycle without addressing what I called the fundamentals was tantamount to putting the cart before the horse; but when the nation was adamant and wanted its way, like the prophet Samuel did when Israel demanded a king against divine counsel, we played our part to ensure that the interest of Nigeria was kept paramount.

I am glad that neither the disappointments of the 2011 elections, nor the stiff-necked response of those in power to his propositions and warnings, have been strong enough to deter Dele Momodu in his steadfast service to the nation from his power slot as a media icon. Instead, he has intensified his contributions just so Nigeria can rise to her potential as a great nation regardless of who is in government. It is that dogged belief in the Nigerian dream that has brought us here today, at a time when the countdown clock to elections reads 219 days but the Nigerian dream is yet asleep and her structural defects glaringly acute.

At this critical moment in our national life, the words of the French emperor and warrior, Napoleon Bonaparte, are worthy of mention. He said, and I quote: “A journalist is a grumbler, a censurer, a giver of advice, a regent of sovereigns, a tutor of nations. Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.” I sincerely pray that all the stakeholders, especially the press and the intelligentsia, will play a pivotal role in setting the agenda for the polity in 2019.

The writings of Dele Momodu have, over the years, addressed some of the fundamental issues facing our nation. I am confident that he, as well as other opinion moulders, will intensify efforts to ensure that the welfare and security of our people, as well as the overall development of our nation, become the main discourse at this pivotal moment. This is the purpose of any government worthy of the name.

Finally, to a nation in the throes of violent agitations, to the people of our nation who want their fair share, and to young people running out of patience, the lesson from Dele Momodu is very clear and simple: spill the ink, not the blood; paint an indelible picture of the nation you desire, and work tirelessly to ensure its realisation, knowing that the greatness of our nation depends on it. If we follow that counsel passionately, we shall, by God’s grace, see a nation that works in our lifetime.

Thank you for listening, God bless you, and God bless our nation, Nigeria.

Dr. ‘Tunde Bakare
Serving Overseer, The Latter Rain Assembly (LRA);
Convener, Save Nigeria Group (SNG).