After lying low momentarily following his exposure as an overrated “Owambe” journalist lacking intellectual depth to dabble in serious analysis, Mr. Dele Momodu would appear to have set out on yet on another misadventure of shame. The last time, discerning Nigerians were left laughing deliriously when the gregarious, party-happy journalist failed to respond to an open challenge thrown at him by the spokesman of the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign, Mr Festus Keyamo, SAN to back up his garrulous claim by citing specific portion(s) of “Renewed Hope” which he said was copied from “Hope 1993” (by MKO Abiola). It became clear he was punching above his intellectual weight.

Alas, with his latest watery dissection, Dele Momodu is again blissfully advertising his vacuous understanding of issues outside the “Owambe” circuits. By setting himself up for another public ridicule, the only logical deduction one can make is that he is only acting out of desperation to impress those who erroneously thought he would bring much value to PDP’s communication strategy. Otherwise, he would not attempt, albeit unsuccessfully, to discredit the otherwise brilliant outing of our candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, at the prestigious
UK Royal Chartered Institute for International Affairs (popularly called the Chatham House) on Monday. For, not only has Asiwaju been applauded widely for demonstrating a deep understanding of Nigeria’s current challenges and solutions sorely needed, but also commended for bringing to bare another innovation: showcasing the brilliance of his team by inviting few members to join the conversation in the Question & Answer session after his presentation. The same communication strategy, I believe, was adopted when Asiwaju and his running mate, Senator Kassim Shettima, addressed the very consequential business community in Lagos not too long ago.

But, of course, such innovation by Asiwaju is disruptive of stereotype and is bound to confuse those fixated on “cut and paste” notion of public discourse like Dele Momodu. Truly informed students of leadership concepts will easily attest that, if nothing at all, Asiwaju’s showing at Chatham House was reminiscent of iconic Abraham Lincoln’s style of public engagement. It showcases a unique approach to demonstrate team spirit.

Even then, is it not ironic and laughable that Dele Momodu is obsessed with picking the proverbial speck in the eyes of APC presidential candidate when elephantine logs are literally dangling from PDP’s eyes, thereby making it the butt of public jokes today. Indeed, PDP is offering to give Nigeria what it evidently lacks. Its presidential, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, prides himself as “unifier”, but has failed elementary test of unifying his party as the G-5 (the Integrity Group) has virtually derailed its national campaign with a boycott. For instance, only on Monday, Atiku had to address an empty stadium in Lagos during what was supposed to be a “mega rally” as all notable PDP leaders in Lagos (including the state chairman) stayed away in their principled stand against what they rightly describe as PDP’s current culture of cheating and illegality.

Typically, rather than engage Asiwaju on the substance of his presentation and his very profound prescriptions therein, Dele Momodu resorted to chasing shadow by way of name-calling and most jejune characterisation of the atmospherics around the sedate, even ornate, chamber of the British Royal Institute that day.

Not surprising, Dele Momodu did not fail to deploy his now familiar tactic: shameless namedropping. In what was supposed to be image-laundering for his sinking PDP, the “Owambe” specialist soon lapsed into another binge of self-adulation by inserting himself into the legend of the “Save Nigeria Group” (SNG) in 2010 and also the story of how then General Muhammadu Buhari had wowed the crowd when making similar appearance at the prestigious British institute on foreign policy in 2014.

To be sure, firstly, Nigerians who were around in 2010 will not fail to acknowledge the likes of venerated Pastor Tunde Bakare as the true leaders and heroes of the SNG. Not pretenders and chronic name-droppers like Dele Momodu. Again, in mentioning President Buhari’s outing at Chatham House in early 2015, he conveniently left out the full details. I happened to be part of the APC team that had accompanied our then APC presidential candidate to the event under our then national chairman, Chief Odigie Oyegun. By now speaking proprietorially of that event, Dele Momodu created a very false impression of his deep involvement, when it was clear to all present that day that all he came to do was gallivanting all over the hall obtrusively, clicking his camera away for photographs of celebrities for his all-gloss photo album called “Ovation Magazine”. Of course, the real “Buhari team” could distinguish gate-crashers and hustlers for photo-ops from serious attendees.

It is high time Dele Momodu faced his “Owambe” journalism and stopped dabbling in matters beyond his understanding.

Alhaji Musa Mohammed sent the piece from Asokoro, Abuja.