By Bernard Okri
Reno Omokri one time aide of former President Goodluck Jonathan on social media is a glib talker. He is ever voluble in denigrating the
government of President Muhammadu Buhari at the slightest
and baseless issues.
He often times reacts on impulse, hastily brandishing phoney data to
impugn on the image of the government. He has ever been petulant and perpetually riled that his former boss fell by the way side during the 2015 general election after rejection by millions of Nigerians at the poll and hence, must fight back by making President Buhari a target of spurious attacks.
Omokri lays claim to being a pastor. But a genuinely called pastor is
Godly at heart. His tongue does not spill gibberish. However, this
Pastor has been dragging the pulpit to the gutters, plunging himself
deeply into the murky waters of politics and acting more partisan each time in his self imposed task of defending a former President who the world agreed presided over the most corrupt, inept, ineffectual and focus-less government, ever. No Nigerian needs a talebearer to affirm this, anyway. The truth is that there have always been litanies of woes heaped on the shoulders of former President Jonathan since his days in office and which a million Omokri can never successfully unbundle. Fact.
Still unrelenting like a loafer, Omokri just recently launched a
tirade against Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbjo for further
exposing the debauchery of corruption traced to the Jonathan years in government, averring that by re-telling the truth which Nigerians
already knew, the Vice President had submitted his “Lips to Satan”
The truth is that by going this far in maligning the person of
Professor Osinbajo, noted for altruism in service to the nation under
the present government, Omokri has exposed himself as a hypocrite, a groveler and a lost soul for electing to eternally bear the burden of
a former President who dragged Nigeria to the edge of a cliffhanger,
perhaps for a pittance!
Omokri defends Jonathan as if doing that will offer a reward of fresh
chance for the former President to return to power. He unabashedly
defends the buffoonery of the past government too, ending up as a
loner in the self imposed job. Perhaps, he should be reminded that
most ardent supporters and defenders of former President Jonathan have ended up in the camp of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and are now actively engaged in delivering the dividends of democracy where they are currently serving. Why wont they defect when they realized the fakery and mendacity of the past government and the ill it portended for Nigeria.
Vice president Osinbajo was, indeed modest to have only revealed that the Jonathan government stole and shared a total sum of N150 billion two weeks to the 2015 elections, while it spent only N153 billion on capital projects. It was worst when same government spent less than N15 billion on agriculture and even transportation a year preceding his exit from government. Available facts have always exposed the cesspool of corruption under Jonathan, which was quite sickening and capable of precipitating doom for Nigeria, but for divine intervention. Till date, no official under Jonathan has been able to account for the huge sums of monies; local and foreign currencies seized by this government in an Ikoyi apartment, Lagos.
The Vice President did not tell a lie, when indeed, many can still
recollect that two weeks to election, President Jonathan took plane
loads of hard earned Nigerian money to Lagos to share among PDP
stakeholders in the south-west for the sake of winning his reelection
bid. The estimated amount Jonathan wasted on that re-election bid ran to over N2 trillion, according to record! Yet, the humongous amount of money could not buy the conscience of the south-west, so Jonathan lost and woefully too in 2015.
Omokri may never want to remember a character like Diezani Allison
Maduekwe, former Petroleum Minister who laterally opened the vaults of NNPC for political marauders to pilfer from. Till today, Nigeria has not been able to quantify the amount of it’s money Diezani allegedly mismanaged, using mere cronies, sodomites and master heists. If a Jonathan protégée, Diezani was innocent; she would never have fled Nigeria for any reason. Nigeria had to depend on Britain to hold the former Minister accountable for the sins she committed against the country, all under Jonathan’s watchful eyes.
The case of Col Sambo Dasuki and the manner he allegedly shared the sum of $2.1 billion to big wigs of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is still pending in court. That amount as analysed is sufficient to construct state of the art airports in each of the six geo-political
zones of the federation.
Omokri does not believe the wife of former President Jonathan also
played a frontline role in depleting the national treasury with a mega
instinct of corruption, in which case the sum of USD 31.4 million she
claimed to be her own is frozen in a bank account linked to her by the EFCC. What about the sum of USD 15 million allegedly kept for the medical treatment of her mother, as well as the sum of USD 5.9 million she forfeited.
Now, Omokri’s Jonathan failed to do what Vice President Osinbajo has been doing, recording successes from special tasks. First, the Vice President on errand by Nigeria, had, through dialogue, helped to broker peace in Niger Delta where Omokri comes from. He spoke the subtle language, which calmed the anger of the militants to down arms. He is not relenting in bringing the zeal of the Buhari’s government for Ogoni clean up to come into reality.
As the head of the Economic Team for the Buhari’s government, the Vice President has helped to attain a good balance sheet of progress. The Economic Team has attained some measure of Ease Of Doing Business in Nigeria, which has attracted the commendation of the international community. Bringing stability to the FOREX, the National Economy is now stable, while people like Reno are not under pressure to flee the country for any reason.
What is more, the unflagging loyalty by the Vice President to his boss on governance has been infectious, stabilizing the polity for more progress to take place in Nigeria. With committed synergy, both the President and his Deputy had seen Nigeria out of a biting recession, into which the government of former President Jonathan plunged it.
The Buhari’s government is opening up Nigeria with infrastructural
development, constructing rail lines and roads to link up all parts of
the federation, including the Omokri’s south-south zone. Former
President Jonathan did little in that regard.
The Buhari’s administration in less than one year brought Agriculture
into the driver’s seat to drive the economy. The sector is, at the
moment locating Nigeria in the league of rice exporters on the
international arena, creating employment opportunities for younger
Nigerians who are emerging millionaires by the day. The agricultural
policy under Jonathan was all noise with insignificant visible result.
Most importantly, the Present government is fighting to roll back the
advances of Boko Haram, which its predecessor by negligence and
regrettable compromises encouraged. Unlike under Jonathan, Boko Haram is fast fading into the oblivion, limiting its actions to momentary attacks on soft targets. We still recall how the government of Jonathan encouraged the sharing of monies earmarked for purchase of arms among master heists who littered the cabinet.
From indications, Omokri, Jonathan’s life media spin-doctors may have been a major beneficiary in the reckless pillaging of national
patrimony, hence his eagerness to always launder the hugely dented
image of his hero and mentor. However, the scale of infamy by Omokri and his ilks in the days of Jonathan may appear concealed, for now. Nonetheless, when the wind finally blows the record book open, what Nigeria may see is an Omokri with a Janus face, a man no one dares call a saint!
*Bernard Okri, Public Affairs Analysts sent this piece from Asaba, Delta State