On May 16, 2010, Africa’s most celebrated publisher, Chief Dele Momodu, turned 50. For those who followed his life and career, a lot has been written about this man a must-read in many respects, particularly for young people who want to achieve greatness. Coming from a humble background, Chief Momodu had his own fair share of life’s challenges but triumphantly rose to become the publisher of ‘Ovation’ one of Africa’s hottest celebrity magazines. As the country celebrates her 50th anniversary, Momodu relives his growing up years in the 1960s, the present state of the country and his intention to contest the presidential elections in 2011. How does it feel to be 50? I don’t feel 50, though I know I have cramped several lifestyles into one. I feel very good. I feel very young. I feel I can still go back and be a ‘jambite’ at the university. I thank God for giving me good health, good life, good family, a good job and I look forward to the future positively. Can you relive some of your growing up days in the 60s? I would say it was a bit tough because, I didn’t have rich parents. I come from very humble background. My father died when I was only thirteen, and I was left with a poor, illiterate mother who was a petty trader. So, you can imagine what life would have been! But then, life in those days didn’t crave a lot after material things, so we were able to manage. I remember the first time I went to Ibadan; I think I was just about nine years old and Ibadan to me was just like going to London. From Lagos? No, from Ife to Lagos ke? I started living in Lagos at the age of 28! Going to Ibadan was like going to London; we saw all the beautiful things that they said they used to see in London Leventis, Kingsway Stores, you saw Father Christmas at Christmas and there was the Cocoa House. It was about the tallest building in West Africa. I saw Liberty Stadium and it looked so big. They told me that in the night, when they are playing football, there is this flood-light that turns darkness into daylight. I remember that my sister in-law gave me oats and I thought: ‘Oh! She doesn’t like me. Look at my ogi, full of coco, so life was just incredible. We used to get communist literature from China. I read a lot about Chairman Mao. I read voraciously as a teenager. I used to read James Hardley Chase, Nick Carter, James Bond, James Flavell, Robert Ludlum. I also read a lot of philosophical works when I got admitted into the University of Ife. We were pioneer ‘jambites’ in 1978 and I read books from Aristotle to Pluto, Socrates, David Hume and all of them. Life, generally, was very good. I read literature; I wanted to be like Wole Soyinka. I remember the day I bought ‘The Man Died’ by Wole Soyinka. And, I heard a lot about him going to storm a radio station at gun point. I read about how he was arrested and detained. I wanted to be like Ngugi Nwa Thiogo. I read “Weep Not Child”, and all those books by Chinua Achebe and lots more. One of my favourite used to be “The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born” by Ayi Kwe Ama. Life was just good. What were some of the privileges you enjoyed as a student? They used to pay us bursary. We started from N200 a year; that was a lot of money. Then, it moved to five hundred naira which was huge. Anytime we got that money, I used to divide it into two. I will travel to Odusote Bookshop in Ibadan, where I will buy a lot of books any book published under the African Writers Series, I wanted to own. But now, you have Philosophy student you ask them who is Bertram Russel, they don’t know. It’s just a shame. Those days, we used to memorise a lot of things, even in general science. Our teachers were proud of their jobs. We didn’t hear about people selling hand-outs or people paying their teachers just to pass an exam; it was unheard of. So what do you think happened? I think the military incursion into politics in Nigeria just ruined everything. After the founding fathers, the Awolowos, the Azikiwes, the Saudanas, I think the next set of people were largely illiterate. They were unprepared for power; that is why now, some of are saying: “No, we must return to those days.” The military didn’t allow our democracy to germinate and grow. I cannot imagine an academic-minded person like me in government now. I will definitely do differently. We need enlightened leadership. What we have now are people who have never achieved anything in life and you put them at the helm of affairs. There is no way they can perform. So I think that is what went wrong; the moment we started having godfathers just bringing anyone and you and I have no say, slowly but surely everything will collapse. Describe the country, politically, from Independence to date? I would say that quality of leadership is abysmal. It is totally nauseating, totally unambitious, shameless and greedy. I don’t know how God is going to do it for us, but God must do it for us. I have never seen a country that has lived perpetually in backwardness and stupidity. So, we have faith that something must happen. Do you have some kind of political ambition to correct all these? Yes. I just presented my Letter of Intent to my political party, the Labour Party in Abuja, yesterday, and it’s receiving rave reviews. I’m running for the presidency by the grace of God. I’m very serious about it and I believe I have what it takes to clean up Nigeria. My focus is very clear. One, our infrastructural decay must be tackled head on; that includes power, road, water supply, medicare, food production, national security. Everything is decaying and yet our leaders are swimming in billions just awarding contracts. That is all they do. We must have an enlightened, transparent, God-fearing and successful leader, in his own private capacity; not someone who is a failure. If you bring a failure to come and lead a nation, he would lead it to failure. We must have people who are builders; people who are ready to build from scratch. We must be forward-looking, ambitious and earn our respect in the comity of nations.