Dele Momudu Wishes A Leader Like Chinese’s Chairman Mao Rules Nigeria

Publisher of Ovation International, Chief Dele Momodu, has said that if Nigeria president were to be like the Chinese legendary leader, Chairman Mao, the leadership crisis the country is presently passing through would have been a thing of the past.

Mao Zedong, who was popularly known as Chairman Mao. was  a Chinese communist  revolutionary who became the founding father of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which he ruled as the Chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976.

A controversial figure, Chairman Mao is regarded as one of the most important and influential individuals in modern world history. He is also known as a political intellect, theorist, military strategist, poet, and visionary. Supporters credit him with driving imperialism out of China, modernising the nation and building it into a world power, promoting the status of women, improving education and health care, as well as increasing life expectancy as China’s population grew from around 550 million to over 900 million under his leadership.

Momodu, a journalist cum philanthropist said during a popular TV programme, Teju Babyface  Show that Nigeria, the most populous black nation in the world, needs a leader in character like Chairman Mao. According to him, the present crops of Nigerian leaders are too detached from the people they are ruling, hence huge gaps between the rich and the poor.

“I found it difficult to see how our rulers behave. Even from the way they dress in the public you will see that they don’t possess the comfortability and character of leaders who could rule very well. The way they wear their ‘agbada’ even if they seat down to sign documents, you will see how they are uncomfortable.

” I will love to see the character of Chairman Mao in our leaders. Our President should live a simple life. Can we see him wearing simple shirt and jeans to be freed? Our problems in this country lies in the kind of leaders we have,” he said.

While speaking on his travails during the draconian reign of former Nigerian Head of State, General Sani Abacha, Momodu, whose Ovation International,  has been given publicity to people from all over the world, mainly in Africa, said that what happened to him was an experience he would never forget easily in life, adding that living in exile was a worse experience than being in jail at home.

“I have to run for my life in July 1995 when it became evident that Abacha’s men were closing in on me that time. I could remember that day when I was coming home when my wife met me on the road to tell me that some people had come to our house to look for me. I had no choice than to flee.

“I spent some couple of day in my bunker in Ikeja to strategise on how best to get out of the country. I disguised like a local farmer to beat the security network at Seme border to escape through to Cotonou in Benin Republic.

“I could remember, after crossing the border to Cotonou, when I looked back to Nigeria, tears ran down in my eyes because I felt the anguish and pain that I was leaving my country to unknown destinations. I left a wife and a little child back home in Nigeria.

“It’s not easy living in an exile. I think it’s even worse than being put in a prison. It is very easy to quickly adapt to life inside prison that adapt to life in exile.

” I could also remember that I was able to get use to life inside the custody I was confined to at Alagbon in Lagos during one of my arrests when Ibrahim Babangida was in power. The cell in Alagbon was nicknamed ‘Kalakuta Republic’, an entirely different ‘country’ inside the country called Nigeria.

“The cell had its own set of rules and regulations. Its own Inspector General of Police and President. Immediately you are put inside the cell, you would be made to recite a national anthem and pledge different from that of Nigeria. Despite that the cell was a confinement, I still found it very easy to adapt to life in the cell than living in exile,” said Momodu.