By: Odeh Favour Adiya
Publisher and former presidential aspirant, Dele Momodu, has stated that he would go to great lengths to support President Bola Tinubu if his administration practised the democratic principles they fought for during the military era.
Momodu made this known during an interview on Arise TV on Thursday.
Speaking on his relationship with the President and his current political stance, Momodu said, “I will ordinarily swim to the depth of the Atlantic Ocean for Tinubu if he was practising what we fought against when we were fighting the military.”
Expressing concern over the current administration’s direction, he added, “There is no earthly reason why I would not, but I would be a bloody hypocrite if after we claimed to have changed the way of military dictatorship, we now replace it with civilian dictatorship. That’s my only problem with him.”
The media mogul clarified that his criticism of the President remains selective and strictly focused on policy rather than personal attacks.
Reflecting on his deep-seated respect for the President, Momodu said, “Everything else, you see, when they are abusing him, you won’t see me abusing him. I have tremendous regards for him, and he was one of those who trained me and instilled this kind of discipline that, look, you can take on the establishment and win. And he did win.”
He noted that Tinubu’s political success in Lagos formed the foundation of his national prominence.
“And that is why that was the record he carried from Lagos as a local champion to a national champion,” he stated.
The relationship between Momodu and Tinubu spans over three decades, rooted in the pro-democracy struggle against military dictatorship in the 1990s.
During that period, Tinubu, then a serving senator, was a founding member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), which championed the actualisation of Chief Moshood Abiola’s annulled June 12, 1993, presidential election mandate.
Momodu was equally active in the struggle, having worked on Abiola’s presidential campaign before the annulment, an involvement that eventually led to his detention by the military regime.
When the late General Sani Abacha seized power and launched a crackdown on pro-democracy activists, Tinubu fled into exile in 1994, operating from the United Kingdom and the United States until Abacha’s death in 1998.
Similarly, Momodu escaped the country through the Benin Republic to Togo, Ghana, and ultimately the UK, where he spent years in exile.
Though both figures have occasionally clashed publicly since Tinubu assumed office in 2023, Momodu continues to credit the President with shaping his political consciousness.
The veteran journalist has previously maintained that despite his stance on the current administration, he remains grateful for the support he received from Tinubu in past years.
Momodu, who contested the presidency under the National Conscience Party in 2011, has recently aligned with the African Democratic Congress as an active opposition voice ahead of the 2027 general election.
