Dele Momodu told students at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife on Wednesday that Nigerian youths must get more involved in the electoral process ahead of the 2027 general elections, warning that the presidential race will be fiercely contested and could turn warlike.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Reading Time event organised by the OAU Library as part of Library Week activities, the media entrepreneur and former presidential aspirant said politics is no place for child’s play. He added that the presidential poll is winner-takes-all and said the contest would bring serious fights among the forces gathered around it. Momodu was also conferred with the Library Ambassador award by the university the same day.
Momodu said he realised in 2011, when he contested, that politics was far tougher than many young people imagine. He urged Gen Zs to seek proper political knowledge and said social media theories do not translate automatically into power. “We should theorise but know that there is a limit to theory. Rather, we should get very practical,” he told the audience.
He tied that warning to his own story, saying he grew up with parents who had no money but still managed to send him to school, and said OAU helped shape his sense of contentment. He also said he would have joined the APC if money had been his motivation, adding that he lived and worked actively with the current president in exile.
On Tuesday, Momodu had criticised the APC in a television interview, saying the party was showing signs of panic despite President Bola Tinubu’s efforts to rally governors, ministers and lawmakers. He said members of the party could not freely express dissent and argued that Tinubu was trying to lift a Lagos political structure to the national level. He also said he would pair Atiku Abubakar with Peter Obi in a possible alliance ahead of 2027.
The OAU event was part of a recurring Library Week programme designed to promote reading and scholarship, and Momodu, whom the university hosted as guest reader at Oduduwa Hall, used the occasion to push a broader message: the more Nigerians understand governance, he said, the less likely they are to follow politicians blindly. For him, the warning is no longer abstract. The 2027 election, he said, is already taking shape as a hard fight.
