Dele Momodu, the Publisher of Ovation Magazine, was on Wednesday, elected the presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP) at the party's national congress held in Lagos.

Mr Momodu beat two other candidates, Martins Onovo and Atei Beredugo, to become the party's flag bearer in the 2011 presidential elections by polling 169 delegates' votes. Messrs Onovo and Beredugo polled 8 and 14 votes respectively. Mr Beredugo, a former Director of Planning in the Niger Delta Development Commission, declared his intention to run for presidential election last week.

Abolishing poverty

Mr Momodu summed up his plan for Nigeria using the party's slogan: abolition of poverty. This, he plans to do through a "10-care programme," which he said will soon be made public. "Our founding father, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, believed that no man was born poor but when you are born into a poor environment where your leaders deliberately decide to make you poorer, then we will be in crises," he said. "One of the reasons we are in the state we are, certainly, is that our leaders have done everything to make us poor. I was at a local airport recently and saw many women waiting for President Goodluck. I discovered they were recruited to come and welcome Mr President and they were paid N1,000. When a nation gets to a stage where you can get able bodied people on the street for just N1,000, that nation is in trouble and I am fortunate to be in a party that believes its priority is ‘abolition of poverty'."

He, however, emphasised that Nigeria's poverty is not lack of resources but lack of productive ideas by those controlling the nation's affairs. "If the president of an oil-rich nation goes to another oil-rich nation for medical treatment, it is a clear example of poverty of ideas," he said. "UAE leaders used to go to Lebanon to enjoy life but they realised they have to build their own nation when war broke out in Lebanon. Our leaders also do that now but they don't realise they have to build this nation." He also blamed President Goodluck Jonathan for the present state of Bayelsa where "puddles still serve as sources of drinking water." "The road between Yenogoa and Port Harcourt must be one of the worst in the world, not just in Nigeria," he said. "In fact, Bayelsa leaders now fly helicopters to their homes; they no longer use the road."

His chances

Mr Momodu said the entire members of all political parties in Nigeria are not up to 20 per cent of potential voters; therefore, his aim is to "target the 80 percent floaters." "As from tomorrow, we are on the road to get people to register," he said, adding that he is convinced it is possible to defeat the ruling Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP), "which stay in power for 12 years is its only credential." "The only thing that makes our leaders special is the fact that they have access to public funds," he said. "None of them has a special leadership character or pedigree. I had been teaching A-levels as far back as 1982. Some of my students are bank directors today. I have been in politics since 1983 and practiced journalism since 1988. I was the highest paid editor in 1991 and a founding editor of ThisDay (Newspaper). I have been publishing Ovation since 1996. So, we have pedigree more than the so-called leaders."