Sojworldnews | Politics

Dele Momodu Says Tinubu Is “All About Lagos”, Not the Yorubas

Veteran journalist and ADC stalwart Dele Momodu has accused President Bola Tinubu of caring more about Lagos than about the Yoruba people as a whole. In an interview on Arise TV, Momodu argued that Yoruba voters have grown disillusioned, and he predicted that Tinubu will struggle to hold the South-West ahead of the 2027 elections. Moreover, he declared his support for Atiku Abubakar. Momodu offered these views as opinion, and he speaks from inside the opposition camp.

Momodu opened with Osun State. He said he is partly from Osun because his mother came from the state, and he praised its people warmly. “Osun people are amongst the most brilliant human beings you will ever find in Nigeria,” he said. Furthermore, he said they take their democracy very seriously.

He then turned to Governor Ademola Adeleke. Osun voters backed Adeleke because he performed, Momodu said, but their loyalty has limits. “That support is not unconditional,” he said. He claimed that if Adeleke told Osun people to vote for Tinubu, they would turn against both men.

Momodu then widened his focus to the whole Yoruba electorate. He called Yoruba voters “the most enlightened electorate” and said he walks among them. However, he argued that many of them feel Tinubu has not repaid their loyalty. “Tinubu is all about Lagos,” he said, and he rejected the idea that Tinubu speaks for the Yoruba as a group.

“Tinubu is all about Lagos.”Dele Momodu, on Arise TV

Momodu also attacked the make-up of the government. He claimed that 80 to 90 percent of the people in Tinubu’s cabinet are his cronies. As a result, he argued, ordinary Yorubas suffer just like people in the Northwest, the Northeast, the North Central, the South-South and the Southeast.

Next, Momodu predicted a strong showing from Peter Obi. “Peter will be a rock star where he comes from,” he said, especially in the Southeast and the South-South. In his view, Obi will humiliate Tinubu and his supporters in those regions. Such a result would endanger Tinubu, Momodu added, because Tinubu must lock down the South as a whole before he can fight for votes in the north.

Momodu also addressed the opposition. He said he supports Atiku, yet he dismissed warnings that the opposition will lose unless its leaders unite. “The scenario is different this time,” he said.

The north, Momodu argued, offers Tinubu no easy refuge. Last time, he said, former President Muhammadu Buhari backed Tinubu, but critics blamed Buhari for the country’s troubles as soon as he left office. They forgot that Buhari belonged to the same party, Momodu said. He recalled that Buhari voted for Tinubu and showed his ballot paper, and he said Buhari’s wife supported Tinubu “almost blindly.”

Momodu then pointed to Nasir El-Rufai, whom he said supported Tinubu “to high heavens.” El-Rufai now sits in detention, Momodu noted. Indeed, the former Kaduna State governor has been in custody since February, when the ICPC confirmed it held him. His trial in Kaduna continues, and the Court of Appeal this month dismissed his challenge to the refusal of bail. He has pleaded not guilty, and the allegations against him remain subject to judicial determination.

Momodu ended on a note of resignation. Politicians can stage all the melodrama they like, he suggested, and Nigerians can only “see how it will pan out.”

Taken together, the interview shows a sharp critic who has chosen a side. However, readers should treat his claims as opinion. Sojworldnews has not independently verified his statements about the cabinet or his predictions about how voters will behave. In the end, the 2027 contest will test every one of them.

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Source: Dele Momodu interview on Arise TV. Quotes are lightly edited from a transcript.