Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barr. Nyesom Wike, has launched a blistering attack on Ovation Magazine publisher, Dele Momodu, accusing him of obsessively fixating on his principal and using the June 12 pro-democracy struggle for personal gain.
In a statement, Olayinka mocked Momodu’s mental state, suggesting he now “sees Wike in everything he does, even in his sleep,” and requires “urgent deliverance and rehabilitation before things get out of hand.”
Olayinka’s remarks were in response to Momodu’s appearance on national television on Wednesday, where he questioned Wike’s role in Nigeria’s pro-democracy history, saying: “Where was Wike during the June 12 struggle? Who knew him then? But today, he speaks as if he’s the founding father.”
Firing back, Olayinka asked: “Where was Dele Momodu too when Nigeria was being founded? Was he among the founding fathers of Nigeria to be living in the country?”
He dismissed Momodu’s criticism of Wike as a manifestation of “psychosis,” mocking his failed 2022 presidential bid where, he claimed, “not a single delegate voted for Dele Momodu. Was Wike responsible for that?”
Olayinka went further to accuse Momodu of exploiting the June 12 struggle for personal advancement rather than any genuine commitment to democracy.
“He only used the June 12 struggle to Japa. He didn’t struggle for anything other than his own well-being,” he said.
Taking a swipe at Momodu’s celebrity-style journalism, Olayinka stated:
“Those who genuinely struggled for June 12 didn’t use the children of the man who incarcerated MKO Abiola till his death as models in photo books.
They also didn’t go around posing in the mansions of military generals for glossy magazine spreads.”
Olayinka concluded by insisting that “when the register of those who truly fought for the actualization of June 12 is being taken, people like Dele Momodu, who merely used it to hustle, should stop forcing their names into it.”
The article was originally published on Politics Nigeria.
