Reno Omokri is a household name in Nigeria`s social media space. He has created a brand and large following in virtually all known social media platforms popular to Nigerians, both home and in the diaspora. In this online cosmos, Reno`s brand has also been heavily commercialized to his credit and personal benefits.
He prides himself as a human rights activist and truly, he has done quite a bit to be addressed in that manner and likeness, at least on the social media. However, attributing the calling – “human rights activist” to Remo must be with adequate caution in honour of the likes of late Gani Fawehnmi SAN, who bled and died for the human rights course in Nigeria.
Mr. Omokri came to the lime light during the regime of former President Goodluck Jonathan. He was the Special Assistant to the Goodluck and was noted to have used “social media to conduct surveys and draw attention to the projects of the Nigerian Government” under his boss.
Since then he has also gone ahead to do some notable things, especially outside Nigeria, where he has remained on self-imposed exile due to his vociferous criticisms and attacks on the government of President Muhammadu Buhari. This has been mostly through his social media anchors, which has large following.
Most of Reno`s attacks on Buhari`s government has been based largely on corruption and insecurity, which has characterized Buhari`s regime since inception in 2015 till date.
Recently, Remo Omokri has been speaking on why he supports the presidential candidate of the People`s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to succeed the current President Buhari in 2023. This is however not the real catch.
Reno`s preference for Atiku Abubakar for Nigeria`s president should ordinarily not have been an issue that gets press attention. Reason is because, it should not be a surprise that Reno as “a loyal party man” wants Atiku in power. No one who understands Nigerians and their kind of politics would expect anything in the contrary from Reno.
However, Remo Omokri caused uproar on Instagram recently, when he tried to compare his preferred candidate, Atiku Abubakar with Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP).
Reno Omokri did not stop there. He went further struggling to justify why he thinks that Atiku is a better candidate than Peter Obi and will make a better president for Nigerians. That was where he incurred the rat of his followers, who showed why they could not be deceived or misled, not even by a scholar with large social media like Reno.
While trying to defend himself against an allegation of not liking Peter Obi, which was made by one of his followers on Instagram, Reno suggested he had a hand in his (Peter Obi`s) emergence as Atiku`s running mate in the 2019 presidential elections.
Reno said the following: “Who told you I don’t support Peter Obi? Please ask him how he became He Atiku’s vice in 2019. He is straightforward. He will not lie. I support Peter. I believe he will make an excellent President. I have always maintained that and never wavered. However, I prefer Atiku to him. I wish he stayed in our party. He would have been the VP nominee.”
However, Mr. Omokri came in defence of Peter Obi against a frivolous allegation of being a tribal “bigot”, when he said:
“As per Peter being a bigot, that is very false. That was an APC propaganda used against him in 2019. Peter’s wife is not even Igbo. He married her at a time when it was almost inconceivable for an Igbo man to marry outside his ethnic group. That alone proves he is not an ethnic bigot. He even resonates with some Northern Muslims, because he is not a bigot.”
That was where Reno stopped playing the nice guy and came out to make his case against Peter Obi in favour of his preferred candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
“My only issue with Peter is that I prefer Atiku to him. If this election was like a JAMB form, where you pick your first, second and third choice. Atiku would be my first and second choices. Peter would be my third choice!” said Reno.
For his uncompromising preference for Atiku Abubakar, which some of his followers were utterly disappointed with, Reno was also accused of wanting favours from Atiku if he eventually wins the nation`s top job.
This accusation was made by an Instagram follower, and Reno`s response was straight but have been more disappointing to his followers, who are largely Nigerians youths rooting for Peter Obi.
“Let’s consider some facts. Peter Obi was cheated out of his Governorship by irregular impeachment. He went to court. He lost in the lower courts and then appealed to the Court of Appeals. The man who restored his mandate to him at the Appeals Court on March 15, 2006, was Justice Jean Omokri, my father! God used my father to return Peter Obi to office. Peter Obi knows me to my house. I know him to his house.
“We meet in London, in America and Dubai. If anybody will give me a post, it will be Peter.
“But that is not how I operate. You guys are so rigid and believe that if anybody is not supporting Peter, they have collected money.”
The catchiest part of the disagreement Remo Omokri had with his own followers came when he tried to explain why Atiku Abubakar will make a better president than Peter Obi.
Reno said, “I support Atiku because he is a job creator. He founded Intels in 1988. Before he became Vice President in 1999, Intels was the biggest port logistic firm in Africa and was worth close to a billion dollars. Please research it. Through that company and other companies in his Priam group, Atiku employs more people than many state governments.
“Nigeria needs jobs for our youths to end unemployment, without which we can’t end insecurity. And I believe Atiku is better placed than Peter Obi to achieve that. That is my choice. Please respect it without accusing me of collecting money or seeking appointments.
“Be careful the types of things you, his supporters, say. Peter respects me and will never use the type of derogatory words you just used on me to describe me. You may mean well, but many times you alienate Peter from people who can help him. Thank you and may God bless you.”
How many people would agree with the above claims made by Reno Omokri of all people, especially when he has spent the better part of the last 7 years of President Muhammadu Buhari, campaigning against corruption and insecurity in Nigeria.
It is on record that Reno`s choosing presidential candidate was the same Atiku who deleted and disowned his twitter post condemning the murder of innocent Deborah Samuel in the hands of Islamic terrorists
Atiku refused to condemn the hate crime perpetuated by the same criminal elements, who have held Nigeria to ransom for over 7 years now. He did this, just to placate the same people in whose hands the young woman, a second-year student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto State met her untimely and tragic death.
On the issue of job creation, Reno also got it complete twisted and he understands this more than any one. He was only playing to the gallery by given credit to Atiku on wealth or job creation.
That is like praising Alhaji Dangote for entrepreneurship in a country like Nigeria, where the rules of the game is continually designed and bent at will to suite and smoothen the path of his likes.
It is also on record that Peter Obi is a self-made man, who made his fortune in the most descent way, while also creating jobs and businesses for others in the process.
Mr. Obi has never had any government patronage, not even as two term governor of Anambra State. On the contrary, you cannot say these same things about Atiku Abubakar whom Reno Omokri was struggling to defend and white wash his candidature.
It is therefore, without any doubt that Reno was hemorrhaging his own integrity and staking his personal honour in defense and in the marketing of a party man and his party`s flag bearer. Reno could have simply done this without unreasonably trying to compare apples and oranges.
Reno should be supporting a candidate like Peter Obi for president, but he is not, and his failure to do this, lies in the allegations he tried to deny. It is needless trying to compare Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi. Somebody should tell Reno Omokri this right now.
