The bitter war between erudite lawyer, Festus Keyamo (SAN) and veteran journalist, Dele Momodu has taken a higher dimension.
Just recently, the Ovation Magazine International Founder cum Director of Strategic Communications for Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Council, Momodu lambasted Keyamo, Minister of State for Labour and Employment cum All Progressives Congress (APC) Campaign Council Spokesperson over his comment about his article.
Momodu said; “I have just read Festus Keyamo’s response to my critique of the APC Manifesto of lies. I’m not surprised that all he could do was yell as usual without examining or practically addressing the content of my article. Unfortunately, he picked on a wrong customer.”
“Let me take a few minutes to educate this young friend of mine who has since become a shadow of his old self since he was offered an appointment, that makes him look so incompetent, by President Muhammadu Buhari. Any self-respecting soul would have since resigned but Festus Keyamo was not at home the day shame came visiting. The Ministry in which he’s a mere figurehead is in total shambles and only a Bola Tinubu would have given the job of a spokesperson to such a certified nuisance.”
“What did Festus say I did wrong? He quoted copiously from an article I wrote about two years ago, which the Tinubu media teams have been using to campaign endlessly, because they have no stronger voice of their own. I’m indeed flattered.”
“There is no doubt that I love Tinubu the Man but I disagree vehemently with Tinubu the Politician. This is not the first time I will say it publicly. Since I now have the opportunity of presenting the bones of my disagreement with Tinubu, courtesy of Festus Keyamo, I will lay them bare.”
“Tinubu has declined in the last few years. I used to see him as a man of his people but no supposed generalissimo would ever abandon his people in the days of trouble and tribulation. None of the people around him could tell him the truth for pecuniary reasons. He knows it himself but he desperately wants to be President of Nigeria, by fire by force, after he has lost most of his formidable foot soldiers, and now relying on outsiders to activate and actualize his lifelong ambition for him, which is his legitimate right. But Nigerians have the right to scrutinise his action plans.”
“When he was Governor, I supported him from the distance while he surrounded himself with some people who pretended to love him. When he was busy distributing land to journalists in Lagos, I refused to collect my papers because I love my freedom, the reason I was able to tell him truth regularly.”
“When he was to be impeached for some infractions, and many of his so-called loyalists were washing off their hands clean, like the Biblical Pontius Pilate, my very dear friend, Tokunbo Afikuyomi, stood by him like the Rock of Gibraltar. But how did he repay Tokunbo who took all the bullets? This shameless Festus Keyamo was one of those who wanted to run Tinubu out of town. Nduka Obaigbena and I had to step in at some point before he could consider Tokunbo for anything. Tokunbo had wanted to be the Governor of Lagos State and Tinubu goaded him on and allowed him to waste his resources. It was when I got Chief Harry Akande to give Tokunbo the ANPP Governorship ticket for Lagos State that Tinubu suddenly realised he had offended his “suicide bomber!”
“During his battle to stop Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki from becoming the Senate President, we all saw how the younger politician outsmarted him. I had warned him to leave the gentleman alone because no one should play God, but he went ahead until the gentleman floored him effortlessly. During his egoistic battle against Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, I wrote an article asking him not to try it because their marriage was consummated in heaven. Somehow, he backtracked. In spite of him, Fashola continues to remain relevant in Nigerian politics.”
“Again, when he continued his tradition of “hire-and-fire” and started plotting against Governor Akinwumi Ambode, I buried my love for Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to speak up against the injustice of removing a great technocrat who was doing well in Lagos. The President of Nigeria, the Vice President, the Governors’ Forum and many distinguished Nigerians begged him to no avail. He must have his way always. The same personalities are now the people he needs and wants to make him President. Nigeria is looking for a President, with compassion and competence, not an Emperor!”
“Tinubu is a man who loves to bait the Masquerade with a goat but will never release the rope. That’s why he kept losing his best friends like Musiliu Obanikoro, Ambode, Muiz Banire, Opeyemi Bamidele, Rauf Aregbesola, Fuad Oki, Yemi Osinbajo, Adenrele Adeniran-Ogunsanya Babafemi Ojudu, Rahman Owokoniran, Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, Aminu Tambuwal, Yakubu Dogara, Nasir El Rufai, Babachir Lawal, Rotimi Akeredolu, Kayode Fayemi, Aro Lambo, Adeseye Ogunlewe, Jimi Agbaje, Ibikunle Amosun, Femi Pedro, Gbenga Daniel, Kofo Akerele Bucknor. Remi Adikwu Bakare, Tunji Abayomi, Tokunbo Ajasin, Mulikat Akande. Chief Dapo Sarumi, Adeniran Ogunsanya Amos Akingba, Bolaji Akinyemi, Mojisola Akinfenwa, John Oyegun, Godwin Obaseki, Yinka Odumakin, Papa Ayo Adebanjo, Papa Abraham Adesanya, Dupe Adelaja, Toyin Fagbayi, Papa Olanihun Ajayi, Babafemi Ojudu, Prince Dipo Eludoyin, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who seems to be aloof to Tinubu’s campaign, and so many others, even if some of them have since reconciled due to political expediency. Tinubu personally decimated the pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, after enjoying their massive support when we came back from exile in 1998.”
“For me, his biggest sin is the fact that he went funereally quiet when APC became a totally hopeless case, just because he’s hoping to inherit Buhari’s structures.”
“Lastly, I hope he would have the energy to make himself available for a rigorous scrutiny of his Manifesto. He wants to renew what actually? He wants to turn Nigeria into another Lagos? Many of those who love him genuinely know that the demystification process has started. They wished he had not subjected himself to this agony and anguish. But they can only say so in hushed whispers. Nigerians deserve better. I have been actively involved in politics. I hope Keyamo does not delude himself that I cannot make my own choices. I certainly have, and done so openly boldly. Atiku Abubakar is my choice. He is not a pretender to the throne. He has pursued his dreams with grace, good comportment, self-discipline and uncommon equanimity.”
“Festus and his gang keep quoting a 2019 article that I wrote. They should go and frame my other writings too. As for that political neophyte called Keyamo, he still has a lot to learn while trying hard to be a lap-dog. He should be reminded that he is still a Minister of State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, paid at tax-payer’s expense. He should learn to moderate his undue exuberance.”
“I could go on ad infinitum but let’s cool temper for now.”
However, Keyamo in a quick response, hit back at Momodu over his bitter remarks about him and the APC Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He said: “After reading through Mr. Dele Momodu’s rather emotional outburst in response to otherwise salient points raised in the statement we issued asking him to point out SPECIFIC AREAS of plagiarism in Asiwaju’s ACTION PLAN, my feeling oscillated between delirious laughter and outright pity for the pathetic wreck his life has actually become.”
“Here is a miserable fellow who having previously overrated himself, crashed down like a wingless bird from a futile presidential ambition (for which he got zero votes in the PDP Presidential primaries), and ended up as an hyperactive hireling and attack-dog of perhaps the worst serial loser in Nigeria’s electoral history.”
“Funnily enough, the only curriculum vitae he truly possesses to even make an attempt at the Presidency is no more than mere photo ops with celebrities and the high-and-mighty in society.”
“This is the sad story of a HOPELESS CLOWN in his sixties who is desperately looking to pick whatever pieces is left of his life by shamelessly worming his way into the pockets of Atiku Abubabar and making himself available to execute dirty jobs against his long-standing benefactor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
“Mr. Momodu’s epistle of lamentations is again a re-affirmation of his manifest lack of rigour. In his latest rambling piece, he failed again to redeem himself on the gross theoretical deficiency identified in his earlier writing. One would have thought he would seize this “second chance” to copiously point out portions or areas plagiarized by the Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Council from MKO’s 1993 campaign manifesto named “Hope 1993”.
“But instead, Mr. Momodu embarked on a “pity party” by whipping up sentiments like a frustrated man to cover up for his obvious inadequacies.”
“Typically, what the readers were then subjected to was another orgy of almost interminable name-dropping of socialites and the likes in Nigeria. But he seems oblivious of the fact that not many serious-minded Nigerians are easily swayed by such tabloid show-boating.”
“For instance, this time around, Mr. Momodu was quick to don the toga of “freedom fighter” on behalf of Akinwunmi Ambode for not getting second term ticket in APC in 2018 ahead of the Lagos governorship polls in March 2019. Well, let us pretend that we do not know the open secret that he was a well-serviced “PR consultant” to the same Ambode.”
“That being the case, how come the same Momodu came out to praise-sing Asiwaju Tinubu on October 26, 2019 in his column entitled “Bola Tinubu and his Date with Destiny in 2023”? Was that not a betrayal of Ambode who, by then, had vacated office and left in limbo? To me, even more amusing was Momodu’s recourse to divulging what he himself termed “secrets”.”
“Such tomfoolery! What he actually tried to do in that column was to again worm his way back to Asiwaju after “cleaning out” Ambode. Such is the character of Mr. Momodu that he actually operates from the lowest rung of moral debauchery; a man who follows who provides his next meal ticket.”
“Atiku is the latest victim of this conman. Mark my words: if, by God’s grace, Asiwaju wins the presidency next year, expect Mr. Momodu to do another somersault by shamelessly composing another “Oriki” (Yoruba for praise song) for Asiwaju, crawling his way back on his whole body frame like an orangutan.”
“Well, as a mark of personal honour, I will never succumb to the temptation to divulge what Mr. Momodu himself had told me in confidence in the past as to why he fell out with some key figures in the Buhari administration. Contrary to his usual public posturing, it was never a matter of principle. As Mitchelle Obama once put it: “When they go low, we go high.”
“As a very busy man with various portfolios and an eye on my huge private practice still going strong and to which I will return anytime, let me end my response here. There are far more important things to do than be distracted by the tantrums of someone who seems to be getting increasingly frustrated that those who hired him to salvage the publicity aspect of PDP’s presidential campaign are so far unimpressed with his mediocre performance.”
“My last comment on this chapter, please. Thank you.”