Mahama did not pay for promotional publication -Dele Momodu

Nigerian publicist Dele Momodu has dismissed speculations he was paid to publish his promotional magazine on President John Mahama.

He has also dismissed suggestions that the latest Ovation magazine edition on the President was not politically motivated in view of a crucial election barely six weeks away.

The magazine which emphasized a special focus on the development projects of John Dramani Mahama' is a glossy 249-page replete with the man, his manners and his mantras.

The launch last Friday at Mövenpick Hotel was attended by the President who maintains a friendship with the Nigerian businessman and politician.

For those questioning his motivation for the publication, Dele Momodu explained that he has been doing such publications for Ghanaian presidents because he is keen to project good stories about Africa.

"We already have enough of bad news of Africa," he said and pointed out that if there are magazines for insects then surely a magazine projecting the achievements of a human being is in order.

The Nigerian businessman said it is good for the president if the magazine influences voters because there can be no better time to publish a story about the president than in an election year.

His attention was drawn to a picture of president Mahama distributing free sandals to students as part of government's social intervention programme.

Under the programme, government said it distributed 10,000 sandals although a headmaster whose school received 1,000 complained 300 of them were over-sized and therefore left in a storeroom.

But the publisher of the lifestyle magazine said he is not interested in a fault-finding expedition because even President Obama is not a perfect president.

"The easiest thing in this world is to criticise others," he said and repeated the President's lament that despite his unprecedented achievements, some powerful elements in the media are blocking his message from getting to the people.

He said partisanship and polarisation have hampered government's ability to project good stories.

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