The publisher of Ovation Magazine, Dele Momodu, has exposed the offensive manner an aspirant seeking the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party in 2022 gave $30,000 (then N13,440,000 at N448/per USD, official rate) to each of the 774 delegates.
The 2022 presidential primary of the PDP was considered the most expensive in the nation’s history with some delegates collecting bribes from multiple candidates despite being allowed by law to cast their vote to only a candidate.
Atiku Abubakar, who emerged the winner from the primary squared up against the FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, senator Aminu Tambuwal then Sokoto State governor, and his then counterpart from Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, the last two stepped down for Atiku.
Some delegates who attended the primary election returned home and shared over N10m to other members of the party in their wards.
Momodu who also bought the tiocket to contest the primary has now revealed the obscene bribe that many had alleged took place during the primary.
Speaking on the Key to Keys podcast show, Momodu expressed regret over spending nearly N50m to purchase the PDP presidential nomination form.
Momod described the primary as heavily monetised, such that he could not compete and vowed not contest any party’s presidential ticket unless adopted as a consensus candidate.
“No, experience is the best teacher, and I have come to realise that there are powers you can describe as principalities that control Nigeria.
“Unless a major political party decides to adopt me through a consensus that Dele Momodu is best suited to change and lead Nigeria, then I can consider it.
“But if I have to pick my money to go and buy a presidential nomination form of about N100m and the last one I spent about N50,m buying the form.
“This could have gotten me a property and it was a waste, nobody voted for me – not even one vote because everything was monetized.
“There was one of the candidates who paid as high as $30,000 per delegate and we had 774 delegates, so how do you compete with them?
“They have stolen the country blind and doing all kinds of deals to make money, especially those in the oil-rich areas.
“It’s not easy and that’s why you can’t compete with them – that’s why they insult Nigerians anyhow because of the amount of money available to them in raw cash.
“There is no country in the world where people control raw cash like Nigeria.
“The bulk of their money is not in any bank so they are not traceable. If today you ask some politicians that look you need $500 million to become a President, they will find it. So people like us where will I start from? I’m not bothered.”