The CEO and publisher of Ovation International, Dele
Momodu has written an epistle to the newly
appointed APC presidential candidate Muhammad
Buhari. In this long and-soon-to-be-controversial
letter, Dele Momodu congratulates the former head
of state for winning the APC presidential primaries. He talks about how he became a supporter of Buhari,
how he believes in him, how he thinks he can bring
the change Nigeria so need at this time. Read his
letter below.. Your Excellency, let me start by congratulating you
on a keenly contested Presidential Primary of your
party APC which you won resoundingly. Even if I'm
not a member of your party, I'm a recent convert
to Buharism, as previously explained elsewhere, and
I believe every member of the opposition must join forces to work for your victory in 2015. It is for this
reason and purpose that I
wish to give you a few words of advice and
encouragement as one of your humble disciples.
I've come to realise that many leaders often fail
because most of their followers are usually too timid or terribly selfish that they can't tell them the truth.
It is one of the reasons I've refused to join any of
the mainstream parties in which I may not be able to
express myself freely. I assure you sir, that I seek
nothing but the good of our dear beloved country in
return for my modest support. Please, permit me to say, categorically, that no man
can claim glory for your victory. The only one to
thank is your God who gave you the uncommon
attributes of integrity, modesty and tenacity. I'm
aware that success has too many family members
but you must be very careful to know your true blood relations. I can imagine the pressure you must
be getting from every direction at this great moment
in a nation of amazing politicians who already see
your likely chances at the polls. It is our standard
practice in Nigeria but you must be careful not to
waste this incredible momentum. I've been monitoring all the hullaballoo since you
became victorious. I plead with you and your party
operatives to act fact and hit the ground running. Your campaign must start urgently because there
are so many bridges to cross. I have no doubt in my
mind that the propaganda of your opponent is
evaporating so rapidly and you've obviously
ignited a passion in our youths who seemed to have
finally connected to your message of change and hope. The last time I witnessed such an upsurge of
emotion and excitement was in 1993 when Chief
Moshood Abiola emerged the Presidential flag-
bearer of SDP in Jos. Trust me, you gave us a fresh
hope two days ago. As a media man, I'm always wary of wasting
moments of glory. You cannot imagine how we kept
sleepless nights because of you. Ordinary Nigerians
like me kept faith with and vigil for you. I won't be
surprised if some even fasted. It was that serious. I
saw Christians and Muslims pray together. It was surreal and magical to say the least. We all waited
with bated breath for the results. When finally it was
time to count the ballot, most of us were in suspense.
We counted every vote along with Senator Babafemi
Ojudu and company. And we were very impressed
with the ability of the Convention committee led by Dr Kayode Fayemi, who taught INEC how to run a good
election. Our joy knew no bounds as you came out
victorious. Sir, I wish to assure you that the outcome of that
keenly contested election was not a fluke. You all
worked hard and made your party and our country
proud. We were happy to see a Nigerian politician
concede defeat even as votes were still being
counted. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar's tweet was a masterstroke. It showed clearly that Democracy has
germinated in our clime and we can begin to look
forward for bountiful harvests in the not too distant
future. We were impressed with the collective
performances of Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso,
Govenor Rochas Okorocha and our Brother Publisher, Sam Nda-Isiah. I pray this team spirit holds to the
end. It is an attitude to encourage because it
demonstrates the preparedness of those who are
serious about the 2015 elections. Even the ambience
surrounding the event venue was just too sweet. My honest and humble suggestion is that you must
do what you've promised to do, carry your party
along with you and you will find the task ahead a LOT
easier. You've criss-crossed the length and
breadth of Nigeria in the past bonding with your
party members and fellow Nigerians. This is your fourth attempt and hopefully the last shot at
returning to finish the job which you were wickedly
prevented from finishing in 1985. In your past
outings, you tried all you could but got frustrated all
the way by forces beyond your control. Never mind,
the time has come for you to reap the rewards of that Odysseus journey. In your previous outings, Sir, you must have suffered
a huge trauma. You were called many unprintable
names because of your bluntness and inability to
pretend and lie about your faith and beliefs. The one
ugly label that stuck to you like a leech is that of
being an Islamic fundamentalist. Even recently, you were subliminally accused of being the prime
promoter of the much-dreaded Boko Haram. But no
one had the guts to frontally arrest you and
prosecute you for crimes against your country and
humanity. I still wonder till this day how you
managed to bear all the insults and assaults against you with such unusual equanimity.
In the process of trying to prove your innocence, you
went to great lengths and chose all manner of
characters as your running-mates. I remember you
chose a prominent and highly-cerebral Igbo Chief, Dr
Chuba Okadigbo, as your Vice Presidential candidate, but that was not good enough for our people to vote
for you. Instead, you were described as an incurable
irredentist. Most recently, and probably out of
desperation to shed off the toga of religious bigotry,
you chose the fiery preacher, Pastor Tunde Bakare of
The Latter Rain Assembly, as your soul-mate, but you were still not able to wash off your hands clean like
Pontius Pilate. I must confess that your skin must be
tougher than that of a porcupine. If there is one
lesson we must all learn from you, it is that we must
never give up in the face of daunting challenges. You
are truly resilient and indomitable. My dream is to see your party come together to form
a kind of shadow cabinet as soon as possible. This
will also show your teeming supporters how
committed you are. The composition of your squad
will reveal the kind of personalities that will
eventually form your dream team in Government. From now on members of that crew will be
formulating policies and commenting on issues of
national economic and social importance and
showing Nigerians what they should come to expect
from May 29 2015. I've always been an advocate
of such because it additionally helps you to gather a combined synergy. Instead of relying on your
personal popularity, it would be possible to tap into
the energy of other members and millions of youths
who are happy to volunteer for your campaign. For
the first time since you started contesting in 2003,
you have a nationwide spread of supporters behind you. It is almost supernatural that the Governors in
your party control the chunkiest parts in Nigeria. But
your biggest assets are the masses who believe in
you. They must never be taken for granted because
they are the voice of God. If the APC can sustain the classy craftsmanship we
saw at the Lagos Convention, I've no doubt that
your campaign would catch the attention of most
Nigerians everywhere and change the lacklustre
way of organising political rallies. Your campaign
must be issue based. I loved your letter to the APC Delegates. It was so soul-lifting that it went viral. It
would be nice to write from time to time to Nigerians
intimating them on how you plan to tackle the many
problems afflicting our country. In addition you must
not fear to regularly interact with Nigerians face to
face when matters of national importance arise. It is a poor leader who leaves such matters to publicists
and spokesperson. It reveals that they are insecure
and unsure of themselves. More importantly, it
displays a significant disconnect between the leader
and his constituents as well as a distinct lack of
compassion. We have suffered too many unfulfilled promises and too many shocking denials of matters
which critically affect our people. The people have
become virtually paranoid of politicians and their
sugar-coated and phantasmagorical lies.
There are too many brilliant Nigerians across the
world desperate to see a better Nigeria before they die. They will support you unconditionally once they
key into your dream for the country. The situation of
the country is so bad that everyone is expecting a
miracle from God. This is the time to prove that
Nigeria is not a cursed country but a truly blessed
race. I'm already impressed with the calibre of people I see around you and I'm persuaded they
are capable of not only helping you to win the
election but also to run an effective government. I wish you the best of luck Sir.
LET THE RACE BEGIN MR PRESIDENT
I have no personal animosity against you, Mr
President. As a matter of fact, I think you have been
just unfortunate to have assumed power at a most
terrible period in the history of our country. I cannot write you off in the next Presidential contest. You are
the incumbent with all the Federal might at your
disposal. But it is going to be the biggest battle that
you, PDP and indeed the conservatives have ever
fought since coming to power in 1999. If you, as the President fail in your second term bid, it
would be due to several reasons. The first is that PDP
has not lived up to its billing despite all the vast
resources at its disposal. The money spent since then
would have turned a more prudent country into a
paradise on earth. But in our own case, the more you look, the less you see. Education has collapsed
totally. Infrastructural decay is abysmal. Insecurity is
atrocious. Corruption has shot through the roof. It is a
long tale of woes. Even those much vaunted areas that your
Government promotes in our media are now being
shown to be nothing more than propaganda stunts.
We still have no power despite all the amounts that
have been burnt in the purported attempt to provide
light for our people. Our economy is in shambles. Our international economists have totally lost the
grip. I still cannot understand how the price of crude
has fallen to the level that it has and yet the domestic
price of petrol and petroleum products has not fallen
a kobo. It is sacrilegious. The one thing that is clear
is that there is now no subsidy of any description so the so-called deficits in the budget should not be
there. Our voodoo economists however will tell us
the contrary. Ask them to tell you the truth because
the die is cast.
The major challenge is that your supporters are also
fond of threatening hell-fire against your opponents instead of trying to sell your best attributes. I can see
this strategy failing already. Please, don't deviate
from your belief that the blood of Nigerians is not
worth dropping for politics. Be a man of peace and
not a man of war. God has been too kind to you. If He
wishes, he may still retain you in power.
