The 2023 presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Dele Momodu has described the sum of about ₦50 million he spent on purchasing the nomination form as a waste.
Mr. Momodu expressed displeasure, stating that he could have purchased a property with the money, given that he didn’t receive any vote in the primary election.
The CEO and publisher of Ovation International, who disclosed this in a recent interview on The KK Show – Key to Keys podcast hosted by Confidence Achodo, revealed that one of the presidential candidates allegedly bribed each of the 774 delegates present with $30,000.
“No”, he said when asked by Achodo if he would consider running again, and when quizzed on why?, the veteran journalist explained: “Experience is the best teacher, I have come to realise that there are powers you can describe as principalities that control Nigeria, and unless, a major political party decides to adopt me, where you have a consensus of people who would say, Dele Momodu is best suited to change and to lead Nigeria, then I can consider it.
“But if I will have to pick my money to go and buy a presidential nomination form of about ₦100m sometimes. The last one, I spent about ₦50 million buying the form. ₦50 million would have bought me a property, and it was a waste. Nobody voted, not even one vote, because everything was monetised. There was one of the candidates who paid as high as $30,000 per delegate and we had 774 delegates, so how do you want to compete with them?”
According to him, the Nigerian politicians have stolen the country blind, and they are doing all kinds of deals to make money, especially those in the oil rich areas.
“It is not easy. You can’t compete with them, that is why they insult Nigeria anyhow, because the amount of money available to them in raw cash, there is no country in the world where people control raw cash like Nigeria,” Momodu said.
He stressed that the politicians do not save the bulk of their money in banks, hence, they are not traceable to any bank.
“And so they have the money. If today, you say to some politicians that look, you need ₦500 million dollars to become a president, they will find it, so people like us, where will I start from?,” he further asked.
The publisher also stated that he is unbothered, however, he is almost giving up, as he feels age is no longer on his side.
“I will be 65 in my next birthday. I may look and feel young, truth is, I am an old man. Chief MKO Abiola, my father died before he was 61, that scares me everyday that look, we are all living on borrowed time, so why do we want to kill ourselves over politics? If the people of Nigeria need a good leader, they know what to do,” he added.
