By Seun Bisuga
Reno Omokri is the modern day illusionist for very obvious reasons. He is one person who never pays attention to details and hardly understands the organogram of the Presidency despite having worked there before as the New Media aide to former President, Goodluck Jonathan.
It’s increasingly clear why he was sacked and replaced by Obi Asika, he pays no attention to details and he’s apparently driven by emotions but more importantly by fraud and lies. In his article titled, “Osinbajo should appreciate me – Reno Omokri” he showed how uneducated he is especially with the workings of the Social Investment Programmes including TraderMoni which Omokri has been having sleepless nights over. First, it’s important for Nigerians to note how TraderMoni works.
The Nigerian Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) is one of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) under the Office of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
This means that TraderMoni is not a personal programme of the Vice President but of the Federal Government in the Buhari administration. The visits by Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to markets are on-site assessments of the programme and an opportunity for the Vice President to directly feel the pulse of the beneficiaries and understand the problems they could be facing.
The programme is managed and executed by the Bank of Industry and the VP never shares N10,000 as Omokri has often claimed. The disbursement is electronic, so is the registration process, so it’s safe to say everything is online. In the first phase, two million petty traders across Nigerian markets benefited from the scheme.
Understanding the economics of TraderMoni has been a problem for Omokri, not that he has shown finesse on any subject matter before TraderMoni. If you skim the social media channel of Omokri, you’ll admit that he has little or no grasp of most issues. It’s difficult to tell maybe he is ignorant or illiterate because he often carries himself like someone who understands what he is talking about.
Away from TraderMoni, Omokri tried to clear his name of the fraud he is perpetuating in the name of Leah Sharibu. It has been well documented that Omokri sold books and shirts in the name of Sharibu, a Dapchi schoolgirl captured by Boko Haram.
Whipping up religious sentiments as he always does, Omokri apparently conned people across the world, including the new UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to buy his Leah Sharibu narrative. When queried to give details of the earnings, Omokri contradicted himself.
In a tweet, he claimed the proceeds from the book and shirt spent no more than five minutes in his account before he transferred it to the parents of Miss Sharibu but shortly after he was asked to show a screenshot of the transfer, he claimed that the monies were paid directly to the account of Sharibu’s father, Nathan.
But this is one of the many fraud perpetuated by Omokri. He once wrote an article in the name of Wendell Simlin – his nephew – to smear the then Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Sanusi Lamido. He tried to blackmail him by accusing him of being the financier of terrorist group, Boko Haram.
He did this to rubbish a noble person who had raised very profound questions about the disappearance of $20 billion from the government coffers. Omokri saw this as an assault on the corruption-ridden government that he was a beneficiary.
Omokri always claims that he is bestseller but in the real sense, he is not. He uses this ploy to target people who are unsuspecting. He grand stands and paints himself in a light that never exists. Take for example the giveaways he does on Twitter.
Omokri claims to put smile on the face of the masses but that’s completely untrue, it’s another scam. He only gives one or two people N10,000 or N20,000, how exactly does that translate into the masses? In all, only six persons have benefitted from Reno’s equivalent of TraderMoni, how does that compare to the millions that benefitted from the FG scheme?
On Twitter, loads of people do giveaways and do not demand retweets in return but not Reno Omokri. He predominantly lives for the attention. He demands that people retweet him to benefit but despite all the retweets only six persons have benefited.
While real people do philanthropy without publicizing it, Omokri lives for the cameras, he even does videos demanding that his followers watch till the end.
Another scam by Omokri is that he is a pastor, something that has become cliché among scammers. No one has seen Omokri preach before despite claiming he owns a church and that is a rarity, given that, he will die for the lights, camera and action.
Any follower that quizzes him about the theology school he attended or who his spiritual father is on Twitter will be blocked. Omokri is the ultimate tyrant, you can’t question his judgment or submission on any matter, even worse, you must not have a superior argument to Omokri, if you do, he will block you but this is the same guy who insults people for fun.
Talking about insults, Omokri cannot debate me, talk less, the aides of VP Osinbajo, it will be a walk in the park, particularly for me, given the lacuna in our intellectual level.
But more importantly, Nigerians must know that there are loads of end-time pastors and must be weary of anyone whose words profess God but his actions are anti-God. He takes delight in using religion to rattle his followers and incite them to violence.
Seun Bisuga is a journalist and public analyst
