How to Get Nigeria Out of this Mess
Fellow Nigerians, please, permit me to express my profound appreciation to you all for finding time out of your very busy schedules to read me every week .... Now, let me go straight to the main reason for my epistle today. It would be an understatement to say our country Nigeria has been in perpetual crises for decades. And this could readily be attributed to lack of selfless, reasonable, visionary Leadership. Our hopes have been dashed endlessly after every election cycle and ritual.
I was tired of complaining and lamenting, like we all do, wherever two or more Nigerians are gathered, and I decided to run the Presidential race in 2011 but failed. I learned a lot of didactic lessons from it, one of which was that I needed a national platform to activate and actualise such a monumental project, the principal reason I’m in PDP today.
I believe we all know the problems confronting Nigeria today. We all probably know the solutions as well. What is strange and mysterious is why the positive change we all crave has remained nebulously elusive. I shall endeavour to answer many of the most frequently asked questions in this address.
What mileage does a Dele Momodu’s candidacy bring to the table? My answer is simple and straightforward. We often hear of “tested politicians”, men and women of timber and calibre but they have been largely ineffective, retrogressive and reprehensible. That is the bane of our present society and societal development. Most of the aspirants for Presidency today can be encapsulated in that phrase “tested politicians”. My view is that, sadly, whilst our politicians may be tested and experienced, they have only been tested, but majorly failed in all spheres. Their experience is one of failure and mediocrity, and it is about time that we moved away from these abysmally low standards and set new higher and fresh qualitative standards and ideals for ourselves.
Indeed, majority of Nigerians are saying they want fresh faces with fresh ideas and refreshing ideals. That is where my candidacy is different and novel. I am that candidate who fulfils the yearnings and aspirations of the ordinary Nigerian people for a principled, talented, disciplined, visionary leader who is additionally imbued with integrity, resourcefulness and patriotism. I am bursting with ideas and solutions to the seemingly intractable problems that we face as a Nation. The good thing is that this is not new to me. I have consistently advised our various leaders about what needs to be done to turn the fortunes of our beloved country around. It is not rocket science, but you must first open your mind, be a bucket for the reception of ideas and be receptive to those ideas. That is a fundamental attribute that is lacking in most of our leaders. It is why we also sadly continue to promote mediocrity because we are left with no choice.
The other gentlemen aspiring and one female aspirant in our Party are all distinguished people, but I bring the following uniqueness and uncommon pedigree into the race which reinforces the strength of my candidacy and why I should prevail over the other aspirants.
With every sense of humility and modesty and without any fear of contradiction, I will say that I have laboured hard to attain a global superbrand status. The records are there. They don’t need embellishment or massaging. I have had solid theoretical and practical education, which has enabled me to acquire wide-ranging experience and exposure in the world of teaching, business, entertainment, lifestyle, advocacy, entrepreneurship, governance, networking, public speaking, academia, journalism, public relations, branding, tourism, information technology, foreign relations, hospitality, philanthropy and so on. I believe that I have accomplished a lot by successfully managing people and resources.
The secret of my successes in different fields of human endeavours can be traced and ascribed to honesty, knowledge, discipline, humility, frugality, passion, comportment, charisma, affability, vision, audacity, tenacity, commitment, loyalty and implicit faith in God.
I’m a child of diversity with a father from Edo State, with a strong Moslem background and a mother from Osun State with a strong Christian origin. I therefore have very strong ties to two of the three regions in the South and the two major religions in Nigeria. I also enjoy extensive links to the South East where I have been a major admirer and promoter of Igbo talents, culture, tradition, and incredible capabilities. Internationally, my job as Publisher of Ovation International magazine and Chairman of the Ovation Media Group has made it possible for me to have a face and name recognition everywhere in the world. I have operated in, and covered over 60 countries, on five continents. In my own right and personal accomplishments, I have met and interacted with Presidents, Vice Presidents, world figures, captains of industry, business icons, traditional and religious leaders, men and women of the armed forces, social crusaders, political chieftains, rebel leaders, philanthropists, and so many others in Nigeria and overseas. There’s no part of Nigeria I have not made friends across ethnic, social, political and religious divides.
More importantly, I have touched lives of young Nigerians in all parts of Nigeria by directly or indirectly providing them jobs or self-employment opportunities. Notably, in the last few years, I have received over 66,000 applications for palliative support from every part of Nigeria, with the largest of about 8,000 coming from Borno State alone, closely followed by Bauchi State. I was able to disburse cash transfers, strictly through their bank accounts, to thousands of applicants without any form of discrimination. Since 2007, I have created new millionaire entrepreneurs every December during the Ovation Red Carol concerts. Before then, and till date, I have promoted and supported new talents in music, fashion, comedy, choreography, events planning, decor, food and beverage, deejaying, graphics, stage management, sound engineering, printing, lighting, social media and blogging, news reporting, photography and videography, hospitality, textiles and fabrics, carpets, flowers, car hire, security and others. I doubt if any of the aspirants would have had such direct impact on our youths. Not even those pwho have been in power almost forever.
As an entrepreneur and businessman with an international outlook, I know what it entails to select, employ and appoint personnel strictly on merit. Nigeria can no longer afford to do things based on primordial sentiments of ethnicity and religion. Whilst we must always take our diversity into account, it must not be a primary or even secondary consideration. I will be a positive role model for other political leaders, in principle and in action. I will downgrade the extravagant and outlandish lifestyles of our leaders who live like every day is Christmas.
Clearly, the next Nigerian President must be the Chief Executive Officer of the Nation and behave as such. He must have the capacity to naturally attract love, and command respect, at home and abroad. He must radiate confidence, intelligence, brilliance, level-headedness, humility, clear-vision, discipline and business acumen and be cosmopolitan in nature. Nigeria urgently requires a measured and moderate leader. He must not be tempestuous, arrogant, intolerant, vindictive, condescending, old-fashioned and outdated.
The world is fast moving away from career politicians to technocrats in politics. Our Party PDP must seize this opportunity to correct the mistakes of the past. We must demonstrate to our people that we are ready to offer a new vista of hope to our country men and women on the 30th anniversary of the June 12, 1993, Presidential election. We cannot continue to recycle the same politicians as if Nigeria has made no progress whatsoever in the past three decades. We must not belittle the remarkable achievements of those who have not been in political offices but have been major players and determinants on the world stage, not the arguable local champions that we presently have. We must resist and reject the notion and temptation of suggesting that power is the exclusive preserve of a group or class of people who have hijacked our common patrimony for their personal use. The time has come to challenge and change the unproductive, retrogressive and reprehensible status quo. We must urgently retire our leaders of yesterday and yesteryears and substitute them with our fresh and innovative leaders of today in order to assure our citizens that our collective tomorrow will be much better and rewarding.
I’m proud to say I have taken time to plan and prepare for this journey. And I’m very ready to lead our nation out of the doldrums. I will be a ready President and Commander-in-Chief from Day One.
What specific policies and programmes will I implement if elected, to diversify the nation’s revenue base beyond oil? Firstly, I must emphasise that, in the immediate future, we cannot seek to eliminate our dependence on oil as a major component of our national wealth. As we seek to reduce our dependence on income from crude oil, we must still embark on a wholesale surgical operation of the industry. One of the priorities of our government will therefore be to make the oil sector more vibrant by eliminating the massive corruption in the sector, building enhanced and efficient capacity and infrastructure, and re-energising the sector through technology and innovation. The deceit and fraud in subsidy claims will end by the policy of subsidy being discarded. Nigerians have paid for this scam for far too long. Every commodity in the world has a price but we’ve never known ours because of the abracadabra of the magicians controling the sector. The recourse to importation will not be a matter of necessity but one of last resort as local production will be ramped up to cater for our consumption and that of our neighbours. Pricing will be properly done to ensure the benefits of our being blessed with this natural resource is felt by all Nigerians and is not a curse or a cross for us to bear. The entire subsidy regime will be fully and forensically investigated by our acclaimed experts in the area, and any unlawful or shady dealings exposed, and the culprits fished out and handed over to the relevant agencies to prosecute. It is scandalous that Nigeria continues to run at a loss in most of our petroleum departments. No diversification of our economy can work if we do not keep our main cash cow very healthy. We shall need to make huge investments even in that sector as part of the diversification process.
We must increase our productivity in the gas sector. We have lost so much time and too much revenue by wasting the limitless gains of our humongous gas deposits through gas flaring. Even now that we have recognised the significant and huge benefits of gas, we are yet to develop this as we should. Had we done the proper thing, we would now be one of the countries reaping the benefits of the Russia-Ukraine war, but instead we are like the unwilling spectator being forced to imagine and rue what might have been. We must never be in this same position again. We will crack whatever obstacles are in the path of harnessing our unlimited natural resources and additionally explore the opportunities and the potential of our extraordinary bitumen deposits. No country wastes the amount of fortune buried beneath our soils, like we do. I’m not unaware of the encumbrances of bureaucracy in our country, so I will be a hands-on Leader who will personally lead the war against the sluggishness in our civil service. One Leader must make the necessary sacrifice and be ready to face the consequences and repercussions, if need be.
Simultaneously, with rejuvenating and reforming the development and exploitation of our oil and abundant mineral resources, we will revamp the agricultural and industrial sector by emphasising the use of innovative and collaborative methods in order to exponentially increase production and output. All that is required is the proper education and a change of mindset and will. Mechanised farming must go hand in hand with food preservation, processing, distribution and marketing. This will definitely generate mass employment.