No Nigerian should be surprised to see Alison-Madueke back on the news as a motivational preacher. Even after the notorious media fraud, Dele Momodu attempted to repackage her as a sick cancer patient who deserved our pity and forgiveness, and not our request to pay back the funds she stole.
By that singular faux pas, Dele Momodu, cheaply took sides with thieves against Nigeria.
He claims to be a journalist. But he is better described as a publicist-for-hire. A man whose conscience has been commercialised.
When he first put out the sorrowful pictures of Mrs Alison-Madueke, one of Nigeria’s most notorious thieves, everyone knew he had been paid handsomely for the hatchet-job to brand the criminal as saint. No journalist who has a moral compass would have taken that dirty job — a businessman who thinks in profit terms may have. Dele did.
But this should not come as a surprise to any one: what does Dele Momodu bring to the universe of the media and journalism? All he has done his entire life is produce a Magazine that offers a suspicious elite and parvenus the platform they crave to showcase obscenity and vainglorious wealth; he is anything but a journalist.
Mr Momodu cannot sit in a room of media veterans and be graded on their level. He would be at best the servant-boy fetching the drinks to be served at such a gathering.
On Social Media, the man Dele Momodu is always quick to draw pictures from his pool of photo-ops, seeking to paint a picture of a man with access to the who-is-who around. But that does not qualify him as a man with any substance, neither can he draw from the integrity and good-character — attributes he evidently lacks — from those he photo-ops with.
If Mr Dele Momodu must redeem his soiled and disgraced image, he must decide to stand firmly with honour going forward. He must decisively and overtly refuse the shiny temptations from such dirty Diezani-like publicity stunts next time.
Though, this may be hard for him. He has made both his name, influence and money from these kinds of jobs. A leopard cannot change its spots. Nigerians don’t expect Mr Momodu to turn a green-leaf anytime soon. No one is sure he has a pint of integrity left, in fact.
Dr Thompson Udenwa