Veteran journalist and former presidential candidate, Dele Momodu has revealed what he did immediately the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared President Bola Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 presidential election.
In the election, Tinubu polled a total votes of 8,794,726 ; Atiku Abubakar scored 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi of Labour party polled 6,101,533 votes. The presidential candidate of New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso came a distant fourth with the total votes of 1,496,687 votes.
Momodu, who was Director of Strategic Communications for the 2023 Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign Organisation in an interview with Tribune said as a part-time politician who is fanatical about journalism, he went back to his desk at Ovation immediately Tinubu was declared the winner.
According to him, most politicians abandon their profession or businesses immediately they get into political office
He says “I didn’t go into democracy for me to be rewarded. I am very passionate and very fanatical about journalism and making my mark and leaving my legacy. That is why I am a part-time politician, I am not a full-time politician. A few days after INEC declared that we lost the election in 2023, I was back at my desk in Ovation”.
“When I went to the primaries of the PDP and I didn’t make it I was back at Ovation. When I lost the presidential election in 2011 on the platform of the National Conscience Party, I returned straight to Ovation. So I have a job waiting for me at all times but most politicians abandon everything that ever made them who they were. I cannot do that”.
Momodu also hailed former Vice- President, Atiku Abubakar, saying it is very rare to find politicians like him in Nigeria.
He said he admired Atiku because he is not a career politician like many in Nigeria today who cannot survive once they quit politics or are out of political office.
“So, I am not a career politician and that is one of the things I admire in Atiku Abubakar. The fact that he left power in 2007 and is still surviving on his businesses speaks a lot; not many politicians can survive like that. He still maintains his personal lifestyle, he is still employing so many Nigerians. He does not practice thuggery and you will never find a thug around Atiku”.
“When you talk to me about democracy that is what democracy is all about, it is not about gangsterism; it is not about what would scare people – you can’t vote because of where you come from or because of religion or they can’t vote because you must be the winner at all times. For me, that is not my idea of democracy. When we fought the military we were fighting for a Nigeria which would be a land of freedom but today, Nigeria is not a land of freedom”.
