Prince Dele Momodu
Dear Dele, permit me to air my views regarding so much interest as a concerned citizen and patriot of this great nation called Nigeria. As you know due to your numerous claims that your views about politics, and other national issues has been influenced by your foreign exposures, I would also in the same vein, assume that we all are locally westernized and crudely civilized in our misgivings and thought patterns. Please do not excuse yourself of this obvious fact. As far as you’re a Nigerian, graduated from A Nigerian University and has spent part of your early days here, you are also PART OF THE PROBLEM NIGERIA IS CURRENTLY WITNESSING. So kindly allow me to call you Dele for short, whatever your full names are, I’m not too bothered, if there be a local, national international title or accomplishment you’ve had in the past, please find a space in your archives at home and put those documents for another day, for another generation because our generation is the generation of SPEEDY SUCCESS,A GENERATION OF CHANGE MAKERS, WE have refused to be held back, just like the American rapper Rick Ross said, by your many impressionist and gullible facts and ideas you usually claim to propound. I am tired of having you praise and fan your ego as a foremost journalist whereas CNN is yet to do a prior notification of your efforts in print journalism.If you have been awarded other cheaper degrees and consolatory awards I don’t know off, never mind it was all done as a recompense for all your grammatical effusiveness. Forget all those glossy pictures you had with presidents, ministers, prime ministers and State Governors, we all know that they all are just up for a show. Can you please swear to the two holy books of Islam and Christianity that all those your publications of the rich and mighty were not all in the name of gaining cheap popularity? Were those not part of your chess like moves to ascend to the ladder of politics and gain recognitions for political posts? How come all of a sudden you have currently lost passion in OVATION and now squatting with a host of other naysayers who call themselves columnists in THISDAY BACKPAGE to comment on issues and throwing cheapshots? When you had the will power to mobilize the youths, you never did but had the whole time in the world touring and writing about men whose success stories cannot be traced to be really genuine. Clearly Dele, you’re one of the problems of the causes of Nigeria’s inherent challenges especially in the areas of youth apathy towards hardwork. In one of your writings, you complained about some cousins of yours who see you as a very wealthy man by often asking of some huge monies from you.” I was surprised to hear you cry out loudly that you were not a rich man but a ‘surviving journalist! Oh really! Has the speck that covered your eyes been suddenly removed? Has it dawned on you? to climb down from your high horse of pride and humbly declare that you are now one of the ‘surviving journalists’?
How come men like you are two sided? Never to be trusted for their words? You complain daily of President Jonathan’s unhealthy approach to National issues but when you had the avenues to correct some social anomalies, you felt that you were too much on the busy side making connections across the continents visiting and publishing , did you ever care about the homeless people living under third mainland bridge? In all your days at OVATION did you write anything about the cases of bad weather and effects of floods on the urban landscape of Lagos and Nigeria as a whole? Did you for one day go to any Nigerian University and donate a biro or even counsel a fly? Dele, Did you write about the bad roads leading to the village where you grew up? Did you write or publish anything about youth unemployment, rape and insecurity? Why can’t you be openly subjective? Do you think you can appeal to the emotions of Nigerians by being assertively subjective in your mono-dimensional view of National issues, oh! I forget, it is either you are being unnecessarily explosive with your repertoire, argumentatively baseless on a faulty premise, or descriptively selfish!
Did you know that by having Nigerian youths see those people in your magazines, especially politicians who couldn’t afford three square meals a day all of a sudden having their wards graduating from foreign universities and throwing parties, I mean lavish parties, wedding ceremonies, and giving out expensive items such as computer laptops and even high definition televisions as souvernirs, you painted an “all of a sudden kind of wealth attitude’? What picture do you think you painted then with your camera and pen? If you don’t know here it is, you succeeded in killing the “Nigerian spirit of enterprise “ that motivation to follow the just path of working real hard to achieve your goals in life and you allowed the Nigerian youth to veer off track in chase of instant wealth by all means.!
What gave rise to yahoo? What gave rise to kidnapping,? What gave rise to youths shunning studies and fleecing abroad in search of the ‘juicy’ opportunities? Some of them may live to regret.
You have formed the habit, together with Olusegun Adeniyi of writing about your experiences, chit chats with names that hover around the ears of an average Nigerian. Of how you were in Spain and the train was moving at the speed of breath! As compared to Ikorodu road traffic, you write about how you met president xyz and how you spent three days having lunch and how you discussed national issues. How come you help other nations enrich their treasury with our currency and end up complaining about capital flight out of Nigeria? You write to impress and rather not to express by using personal experiences as a yard stick to infect the national psyche of a nation of about 350 million people (350 Million to me is the true statistics of Nigeria’s population. You do not need a statistician to tell you that the 160 million is a BIG PHAT LIE). That to me is an insult. Are you the only one that has visited Cincinnati? Must you rub off your thin & lucky opportunities of being in a Washington hotel and almost shedding tears for Nigeria? Please keep your tears! Rather than shed tears for Nigeria why not douse her fears and be a good country man!. Please Dele, I know the world is moving at a fast pace, we as Nigerians we know our plight and the fulcrum around which such issues revolve around. Please allow us to develop at our own pace, allow Nigeria to slumber, fall and rise again. Undue comparison sometimes could mar the destiny of a collective Nation. Please, be more of a reasonable technocrat that a crying free man. Why compare Nigeria to other countries? Is there a fair comparison for your judgments? I know after reading this you’d be tempted to write back in your usual manner defending yourself by begging the question which in philosophical terms, puts you on the edge of losing your analytic sanity as a thinker and a literate individual.
Dear Dele, I’ will be tempted to kiss a live wire from a high voltage transformer if you have actually helped to sponsor about 300 Nigerians to Nursery school. Not SECONDARY, NOT PRIMARY, NOT UNIVERSITY. I mean Nursery school and kindergarten. Have you ever helped visit rural and urban slums to donate a pint of pure water? If I’m wrong in this regard, pardon my vexation on you but same, the whole assumptions are in my pack of cards.
Dear Dele, I’m aware that you may not have known this but look around Lagos, Nigerian Youths are no longer taking the back seat, we have become the agents of change, Infact we are the CHANGE NIGERIA has been waiting for. Some of these names should mean something to you, your wife and children. Have you heard of Tolu Sangosanya running the “Lots Orphanage Foundation”? If no, please ask , what of Tosin Jegede of 1 book, I Child, What of Otto Orondaam of the Slum To School project, Beyond the Classroom, Bethesda Foundation, Ms Emerhor runs FairLife Africa, haven’t you heard of these names, what have you done in your own regard to replicate or initiate these patterns of change these under 30’s are spearheading.
You find it comfortable sitting in your little cocoon and generating assumptions but how well have you verified your facts. Thank God, Nasir El Rufai has stopped feeding us with static and archived information from the museums of our past. Good riddance to “a columnist wannabe” I guess. Haven’ you heard of the affected flood victims of Bayelsa, Delta, Imo, Kogi and Edo State. Dangote gave, I know of a female professor at the University of Lagos who gave some materials, rallied around for support and donated items to flood victims in Delta State. WHAT DID YOU DO?
Why are you always writing to testify and brag, are you writing to show off your ‘documentations’ because last time I checked, your essay on the Obama inauguration has got you talking and preaching, about how tears flowed from your eyes! Did those tears flow when Aladdin, Ugonna and Tekena of blessed memory were hatched and burnt to death by irate mobs in Rivers State?.
Incase you don’t know, find the book written by Lee Kuan Yew and the story of Singapore and then find a sector in the Nigerian economy, develop a blue print and creatively suggest how you could engage Nigerians on a yearly basis for trainings. Another question, why did you start campaigning for the post of president when the power brokers already had an anointed candidate for that same position, “if to say them give you ministerial position to compensate you for ya noise ‘ you go talk say you no go chop? I even heard that Mrs Dele never voted for her own husband! That was to me the height of unbelief in a man-to know that your wife does not support a cause for which you can die for. Clearly Dele, always write to suggest and not write to impress, you don’t need age long clichés and all forms of idioms to pass a language, in my own terms I’d say you blab a lot with your pen!
In the words of Lenin, “one of the symptoms of a revolution is the sudden increase in the number of ordinary people who take an active interest in politics”. Would you not rather not be a part of this great revolution already gaining momentum?