The hypocrisy of Dele Momodu ‘s so-called friendship, by Kayode Adebiyi

It has come to a point where it now feels nauseating to me every time Mr. Dele Momodu attacks the President, only to quickly parrot the same tired line that “President Tinubu is my friend, and I am closer to him than many who daily attack me because I publicly criticise him.”

Then, the next he does is to dig up an old tired photo from their days in exile as a bragging right to justify his often uncouth and pedestrian rhetoric against President Bola Tinubu.

Friendship is not a stage prop to be waved around when convenient. It is loyalty, trust, and discretion. A true friend does not strip another bare in the marketplace, only to point at the nakedness with glee.

Yet, he’s never tired of calling President Tinubu his “friend” even as he attacks him at every turn, branding him a dictator, maligning his record, and dragging his name through the mud. If this is friendship, then one shudders to imagine what Momodu’s enmity would look like.

Let’s be clear: friends do not perform for applause. If, as Momodu often boast, that he can reach the President anytime he wishes, then why this obsession with grandstanding in public? Why the endless ambushes dressed up as noble criticism?

The truth is simple: when one chooses the stage over a phone call, the motive is no longer correction but spectacle. That is not principle, it is pettiness.

Dele Momodu often invoke shared exile days and NADECO struggles as though history gives him the license to batter a man endlessly. But history is supposed to bind people to responsibility, not serve as a weapon. You hurl the word “dictator” around in a country where elections are fought bitterly, results contested fiercely, and opposition parties thrive.

Lagosians have freely chosen Tinubu’s successors again and again. To twist their collective will into proof of dictatorship is not analysis, it is a deliberate insult to the intelligence of millions of Lagosians who dutifully exercise their fundamental right to choose their leaders at every election circle.

And let us not pretend about double standards. You never find your voice against the mountain of baggage surrounding your preferred candidate, Atiku Abubakar, an ally mired in corruption allegations and scathing assessments by his own former boss, Olusegun Obasanjo. Yet you beat Tinubu with a stick every chance you get while singing hymns for Atiku. That is not conscience; it is convenience.

Through it all, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has kept his peace. He has not dignified your constant jabs with replies. That silence is not weakness but strength, a mark of discipline and magnanimity. It is the restraint of a man who refuses to wrestle in the mud with someone who pretends to be a friend but behaves like an adversary.

So, Mr. Momodu, stop the charade. You are not a friend of the president! Be bold to say so openly. Wear your opposition and enmity with pride. Stop insulting the word “friendship” by using it as a fig leaf for hostility.

Friends do not gleefully toss friends to the mob. Friends do not tear each other down in public for clout. And friends certainly do not hide malice behind the mask of shared history.

If public ridicule is your chosen pastime, then let us be honest: you are not a friend of Bola Ahmed Tinubu. You are his enemy, masquerading as friend.