Dele Momodu and the President’s men.

 

By Steve Ovirih.

 

Dele Momodu, Bob Dee, as he is popularly called is a household name in the Nigerian media industry. If you don’t know Dele Momodu, you don’t know Ovation Magazine. Ovation stable at a time in Nigeria was the flagship of big time entertainment reporting that splashed the lifestyle of the elite and the nouveau riche on the glossy pages of the international and high worth magazine.

 

Bob Dee did not start with Ovation. He learnt the stages and rose through the ranks with the Concord Titles owned by the big man of chains of businesses but later martyred Chief MKO Abiola ( May Allah rest his urbane soul). Dele as Chief Abiola used to call him was a likable personality and in whom Abiola found a trusted media handler.

 

Like most Nigerian achievers, Dele Momodu started small from a humble background at Ile Ife , the source where he had his primary and secondary education as well as University of Ife,later Obayemi Awolowo University, OAU, where he studied Yoruba in his first degree, following it up with additional degrees. You can give it to the publisher of the Ovation Titles; growing up he never rested on his oars and by a dint of hard work, he gifted Nigeria and Nigerians a unique entertainment tabloid of global speak and appeal that reigned for decades before the advent of social media and online blogs.

 

Momodu entered politics just like other Public Relations guru and he plied his trade for whoever aligns with his political standpoint. In the world of journalism, he carved a niche for himself and he is a model for starters who dare to activate avant-garde journalism.

 

It came as a rude shock last week when friends of Dele Momodu, or should I say estranged friends of Momodu who have warmed their ways into the heart of the Presidency to become  “the president’s” men, Femi Fani Kayode and Reno Omokri, both came to different media pages to ‘fry’ their friend of many years . It was satire at its worst as all decorum was thrown under the bus in their bid to diss Bob Dee and tear his pubic garment of honour. Yes, Fani Kayode, son of the elite Ife Politician ,Fani Kayode Senior is of royal blue blood and his background smells of royal roses. He came to limelight as an Obasanjo loyalist in the blossoming days of People’s Democratic Party. He became a Minister under PDP and the rest is history. For Reno Omokri, the Jonathan Presidency brought him to limelight and blessed with the garb of talks and contents, he has continued to horn his fame.

 

Interestingly, both Femi Fani Kayode and Reno Omokri, now Ambassadors appointed under the goodwill of President Bola Tinubu, were at a time sworn foes of the Presidency who had used their media grist and pages to drag the former Lagos Governor in the build up to the 2023 General election which Tinubu won with an air of a skillful political gamer, silencing detractors across political divide and across regional axes. Femi -Fani Kayode and Reno Omokri switched camp and political allegiance to become the President’s men and they got timely compensation for their gesture.

 

No one has the right to call anyone a political turn coat because in Nigeria , what is permanent is interest and people in politics in this clime naturally gravitate to where their interest is better served. In his days as the Governor of Ekiti State, Chef Ayo Fayose popularized this concept by calling it ‘stomach infrastructure.’ You can not blame an average Nigerian politicians whose swap modes are motivated by the infrastructure of their stomach. So, it was a huge surprise that Dele Momodu was being dragged by his friends of yesterday for sticking to Atiku, the serial Presidential candidate, who looks almost certain to clinch the ADC Presidential ticket. He was described as ….. I would rather not dignify this page with such unprintable descriptions ; and the question is, could politics have blurred the edge of friendship  that much?

 

For those who have followed the media streaks of achievement of Bod Dee, nothing changes about their perception no matter the media war. Politics has an amusing ways of making foes friends and friends foes. Nothing changes the larger than life media imagery of Dele Momodu as the journalist who used soft sell entertainment genre to tell stories the interesting media way at a time in Nigeria.

 

we hope someday, Bob Dee and his friends in the Presidency make up and back slap over the vexed matter with some chilled cognac .