Minister of State, Labour and Employment and Director of Public Affairs and Chief Spokesperson, Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo (SAN) has reacted to the caustic remarks attributed to the former presidential aspirant and Director of Strategic Communications of the People’s Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council, Chief Dele Momodu.
Momodu, in an article published on Sunday titled, “APC: Renewed hope or forlorn hope?,” has dismissed the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu manifesto, tagged Renewed Hope as lacking originality.
Momodu alleged that the manifesto was lifted from the Hope 93 manifesto of the presidential candidate of the defunct Social Democratic Party and presumed winner of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, (M.K.O).
The Director of Strategic Communication of the PDP further dismissed the manifesto as “an insult to the sensibility and needs of Nigerians” and accused the authors of “copy and paste”.
Keyamo in a response,” PDP’s Juvenile critique of APC’s Action Plan, Renewed Hope,” claimed that Momodu lacked the mental capacity to critique a policy statement.
Keyamo also described Momodu as a turncoat as he noted that the latter had once praised Tinubu’s administrative acumen as governor of Lagos State.
“Dele Momodu should have rather stayed in his accustomed lane of praise-singing socialites and the likes instead of dabbling in the more demanding job of critiquing policy statements. It is clearly not his forte! The quality of his recent write-up is a testament that his team is not made up of experts in governance and policy formulation. He must have gathered his team of photographers and video editors to read through a document that is far beyond their tabloid-centred minds.
“One would have expected Dele Momodu to make clear comparative analyses between the Hope ‘93 campaign document of MKO Abiola and the Renewed Hope document of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He goofed miserably. He was just huffing and puffing without substance. A write-up that was intended to be a critique of a document on its supposed lack of details ended up as an empty shell.
“We are surprised that Dele Momodu could ask what our candidate is known for. Since he has asked either out of self-denial or selective amnesia, we will answer him with his exact words from the past.
“Hear him in another portion of the aforementioned article: “Tinubu assembled a fantastic team of technocrats and created the gargantuan master plan for modern Lagos.”
“Dele Momodu has lived in Lagos for more than three decades. He surely knows the state of Lagos pre and post-1999. He has praised, on many occasions and at different fora, the imperishable legacies and monumental milestones of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Lagos. In the same piece, Momodu narrated how Asiwaju Tinubu began the “systematic and robust increase of Lagos’ Internally Generated Revenue, making the state one of the richest self-sustaining governments in Africa”, and how “he singlehandedly (sic) revived and revamped Local Governments in Lagos and brought developments to practically every part of the state.”
“Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is known for “his glittering records and achievements in both private and public sectors”
“Can Dele Momodu also say this about his principal, Atiku Abubakar, whose time as Vice President has no other legacy to be remembered for other than the failed privatization exercise he was assigned to supervise where he sold national assets to his friends and cronies for peanuts? Should we remind you, Dele Momodu, of the distasteful remarks made by Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on your party’s flag-bearer as Vice President?”
The APC spokesperson claimed further that the achievements of the present Muhammadu Buhari administration would be enough to earn Tinubu the votes of Nigerians at the forthcoming general elections.
“Of course, track records should be critical in evaluating any party or candidate. If we may ask Dele Momodu, what are your party’s track records? When the country had substantial receipts from crude oil export, your party squandered it all. PDP represent what the Yoruba proverbially call “Arungun” (squanderer). They promised the people the South-East Second Niger Bridge for 16 years, yet, nothing was built. Today, thanks to President Muhammadu Buhari of APC, the Second Niger Bridge is completed. At a time, a former spokesperson of your government said Nigeria couldn’t afford train coaches, and much fewer rail lines. Today, we have Lagos – Ibadan, and Itakpe – Warri rail lines. Even in the face of dwindling resources and global economic challenges, we have lifted millions of Nigerians out of poverty with our National Social Investment Programs, widely acclaimed as the first in Africa in scale and innovation. Nigeria has become a sufficient rice-growing nation, rated highest in rice and sorghum production in Africa by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), a status PDP thought was impossible.
“Our efforts in power generation and distribution are yielding good results, unlike the $16 billion squandered by PDP under Obasanjo under the guise of power projects with nothing to show for it. Pledges made by PDP governments are being redeemed by our party. Pensions and other entitlements of workers in PDP’s failed privatisation scam have been paid up to date.
“Sure, like Dele Momodu once said before he took up his new mercenary job from PDP, Asiwaju has “too many technocrats to pick his team from.” He is surrounded by “brilliant, intelligent, accomplished and cosmopolitan leaders” across all sectors, spheres and walks of life. He will hit the ground running when he takes over power in May 2023, by the grace of God and most Nigerians. As he did in Lagos state, he will assemble “quality and talented leaders” in his cabinet that will see to the delivery of our campaign promises.
“On the contrary, the 5-point agenda of the flag bearer of the PDP is nothing to write home about. Top on the list is his lip service to unify Nigeria. We can only laugh. This is a man whose party is torn between division and disarray. Now, he is yet to fix it. What a failure! His 74-page campaign document has in it ongoing milestones of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration. From lifting millions out of poverty to power generation to economic revitalisation, it is clear that they are either too lazy to think or bereft of fresh ideas. Everywhere Atiku went, he was never caught speaking to issues of governance. Rather, if he is not promising the Igbo Presidency in 2027, he is playing the ethnic card (like in Kaduna). Nigerians are wise, they know he has nothing to offer.
“Finally, Dele Momodu and his party failed woefully to point out a single example of the copy-and-paste he referred to in the press statement released by him. It was expected that he would have cited one example of an original document from which we copied and the portion in particular. In all, his press release is just juvenile prose, bereft of details and substance, full of highfalutin nonsense and signifying nothing.”
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