Someone should please tell Reno Omokri, an ex-aide to an ex-president that no amount of malicious outburst on Vice President Yemi Osinbajo can shrink the respect Nigerians have for a man who is touted as one of the most venerated public office holders in the chequered history of Nigeria’s democracy.
Omokri, instead of brandishing his envenomed guilt without remorse or debasing a government that has re-positioned the country for greater prosperity, should throw tirades at those ghosts that perpetually haunt him and his principal as a result of the debaucheries perpetuated by them.
Nigerians don’t understand why Omokri does not see anything good about a government that has achieved within three years, what his principal could not in six years.
As one of the spokesmen to former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, a man who superintended a government that reeked with filth and sleaze, each time Omokri writes, his ink ventilates foul smell in form of brazen lies that often lack lustre.
Recently, he has gotten for himself a new job and that job is to throw random, vapid vituperations on the person of Vice President Osinbajo.
Nigerians were very much aware how Goodluck’s regime birthed fashionable corruption and christened it a new name. It was an era where stealing was not regarded as corruption.
Corruption during Jonathan’s regime was like an abandoned public lavatory, it was riddled with maggots of different sizes, and when opened, it oozes nauseating smell.
Nigerians should therefore understand why Reno Omokri cannot freely breath each time one of the chimneys to the lavatory is open.
Recently, Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, opened the tiniest vault to the lavatory and as expected, Reno Omokri could not stand the unpleasant smells it ventilate.
Laolu had said: “We have a situation where a former first lady came out openly to claim over $171m found in her accounts and you think Nigerians will simply overlook that.”
Reacting, Omokri in his usual demeanour, threw a pointless dart into the air, thinking that his enemies were domiciled in the sky.
In his bid to defend a government that was known for buffoonery and corruption, Omokri keeps ridiculing himself and revealing the inherent mutability of character of a man who arrogated himself the status of a Pastor.
He spewed thus: “First of all, there is no former First Lady from the Jonathan administration that has claimed $171 million in a bank account. Upon a promise of a suit for libel, I challenge Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to name that person.”
Even if Omokri has lost all his senses due to the fact that he benefited enormously from a regime that was notoriously unpopular, but popularly notorious for its corruption, the remnant of his senses should remind him that there was only one first lady during Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s regime, and that was Dame Patience Jonathan.
Omokri, admitted that Vice President Osinbajo mentioned the discovery of $43.4 million, a money stashed in one of the rooms at the Osborne Towers in Ikoyi, Lagos by Ambassador Ayo Oke.
Someone should please remind the Defender General of Corruption (DGC) that Ambassador Oke was one of the seeds of corruption planted by former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, and if anything, Omokri should applaud the current regime for their tenacious and daring commitment towards removing all the vestiges of corruption planted by the past regimes.
For record purpose, Ambassador Oke, the sacked Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) was appointed by Goodluck Jonathan on November 7, 2013 but was sacked by President Buhari on October 30, 2018 following his bounteous involvement in the Osborne Towers scandal.
Did Omokri equally accuse Professor Osinbajo of being ‘silent’ about the alleged corrupt case involving the immediate past Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal? Someone should please activate Omokri’s memory.
Vice President Osinbajo was the Chairman of the Panel that recommended the immediate sack of Babachir, how else does the overtly benighted and disillusioned Omokri want the Vice President to exercise his eloquence on anti-corruption?
Curious minds would ask why Babachir has not been charged to court. We should not be oblivious of the fact that the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria defines how certain powers are exercised.
It should be noted that neither the President nor the Vice President has the right to interfere or hinder any investigation as the constitution does not offer them such power.
The onus of prosecution lies with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC); where and when they have reasonable grounds to charge former and serving officers to court under laws, they do not require the permission of the President or his Vice to do so.
There are indications that the Buhari-led administration is committed to fighting corruption, and he is winning where Omokri’s principal had failed woefully.
Omokri who served the most corrupt regime in our history lacks the locus standi to even run any form of commentary on corruption because his principal is a symbol of how not to fight against corruption.
Figures published by the EFCC, reveal that N738.9 billion was recovered in just two years of Buhari’s regime and bulk of these monies were siphoned by the same government Omokri is striving hard to defend, forgetting that it is always impossible to carve a good image out of rotten wood.
Those who know Omokri, understand how desperate the self-ordinated pastor could be.
Instead of dissipating energy to burnish the battered and plummeted image of his principal, Omokri now finds solace in throwing tactless tirades on the Vice President and the government that is working so hard to repair all that they destroyed.
In order to give dog a bad name so that he can be hanged, Omokri had quoted Aisha Yesufu, who described Professor Osinbajo as her ‘greatest disappointment’.
Few background information will explain why Aisha, the co-founder of BringBackOurGirls is greatly disappointed with Vice President Osinbajo and the Buhari-led administration.
Students of history would recall that Aisha rode to stardom on the account of failure of the past regime in tackling the menace of Boko Haram.
However, the commitment of the present administration to fighting terrorism has hauled her to the back seat of activism, thereby deflating the undeserved relevance she garnered during Goodluck’s regime. One option to Omokri and Aisha, his co-traveler will suffice – they should go get themselves decent jobs. Specifically, Aisha should change the direction of her activism because majority of the girls that were kidnapped by Boko Haram during Goodluck’s regime have been brought back.
No amount of worthless diatribe and gibberish from Reno Omokri and his ilk, can stop the revolution being championed by President Muhammadu Buhari and his co-rider, Professor Yemi Osinbajo.
The ‘Change’ mantra is like a moving train, nothing can stop it.
– Authored by Abdullahi Haruna Haruspice, staff of News Agency of Nigeria
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