Omokri Replies Tinubu, Nigeria’s Best Anti-Corruption Rating Till Date Was Under Jonathan

Reno Omokri, former special adviser on new media to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has reacted to claims by Bola Tinubu that there was unprecedented corruption in the previous administration.

Speaking at the launch of a mid-term scorecard by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in Abuja on Thursday, Tinubu criticised the Goodluck Jonathan government for allegedly turning “public treasury” into a “private hedge fund”.

Tinubu said right under Jonathan’s watch, monies that would been used to develop the country ran away “faster than Usain Bolt”.

According to the National leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC), the manner with which monies were allegedly misspent under the immediate past administration could “cause the devil to blush”.

Responding, Omokri who described Tinubu’s claim as baseless and lacking in facts, noted that Nigeria got its best rating in anti-graft war under the Jonathan administration.

In a statement, he said Nigeria moved from 144 to 136 in Transparency International‘s annual Corruption Perception Index In 2014 under his former principal.

“Transparency International observed the Jonathan administration’s fight against the corruption in Nigeria’s fertilizer procurement regime, the use of technology to remove 50,000 federal ghost workers and the speed at which the then President fired ministers accused of corruption or conflict of interests,” he said.

“From that time till today, Nigeria has not made any improvements and has remained at 136 where Jonathan left us because Transparency International deals with facts, not opinions or media trial.”

Omokri added that while there have been no convictions of financial misappropriation stemming from the Jonathan era other than media sensationalism, “we do know that it is a fact that the allegedly corrupt pension thief, Abdulrasheed Maina, was dismissed and declared wanted by the Jonathan administration.

“We also now know that it is a fact that the present attorney general of the federation, Abubakar Malami, met with Maina in Dubai. We know that Maina’s family revealed in a press conference that Maina was invited back to Nigeria by the present government. It is also a fact that Maina was recalled, reinstated and given double promotion by the current administration.

“Moreover, we know from the head of service’s leaked memo that President Muhammadu Buhari was aware of this entire saga.

“Perhaps Asiwaju Bola Tinubu mistook the Usain Bolt speed at which Maina was smuggled back into the country and reinstated for the unproven claims of corruption under Jonathan.”

Omokri also said contrary to Tinubu’s claim that the Boko Haram insurgency would have worsened if Jonathan were to still be in power, the situation has is now worse under Buhari’s government.

“It is a fact that between 2013 and 2014, Nigeria under President Jonathan was unfortunately listed as the fourth most terrorized nation in the world.

“However, in the latest Global Terrorism Index released yesterday (November 15, 2017) by the Institute for Economics and Peace, Nigeria has deteriorated from where Jonathan left it and is now the third most terrorized nation,” he added.