Osita Okechukwu, Reno Omokri bicker over Jonathan’s anti-corruption claims

The Director General of the Voice of Nigeria, VON, Osita Okechukwu and ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s Special Assistant on new media, Reno Omokri, have been engaged in a media war over the former president’s speech at the Peoples Democratic party, PDP, Special Non-elective Convention.

While Mr. Okechukwu dismissed with a wave of hand the statement credited to Mr. Jonathan that his administration did very well in the fight against corruption, Mr. Omokri in a swift reaction advised him to stick to the facts

Mr. Jonathan at the PDP convention on Saturday was quoted as saying that “though we didn’t completely plug the loopholes in the fight against corruption, but we did well.”

But the VON chief while speaking with reporters on Monday said Mr. Jonathan rather than plug loopholes widened it.

“He should apologise to Nigerians whom he betrayed for being less than transparent. I was outraged when I heard him proclaim that PDP will return to power in 2019 because of the hunger and poverty ravaging the country”.

Asked whether it is not true as the ex-president said that hunger and poverty are ravaging the country, Mr. Okechukwu said, “Wait a minute, Nigerian economy could have collapsed if President Buhari didn’t come to the rescue. Jonathan relied on Voodoo economic records which rated the Nigerian economy higher than that of industrialised South African economy. An economy with 40,000 MW to Nigeria’s less than 4,000MW. This is a hard fact, otherwise let’s refer to our financial records to see how the ex-president and by extension his party railroaded Nigerians into abject poverty, food insecurity and deficit infrastructure via planlessness and squandermania”.

According to Mr. Okechukwu, during the Jonathan era, Nigeria in 2010 made $70.7 billion from oil sale, $100.1 billion in 2011, $96.9 billion in 2012, $86.9 billion in 2013, $77.9 billion in 2014, and $21 billion from Jan-May 2015, compared to the Buhari era which got only $16 billion from June to December 2015, $26 billion in 2016, and $16 billion from January to July 2017

Mr Okechukwu further lamented the wastage of funds amounting to over $23 billion meant for building three greenfield refineries in Kogi, Bayelsa and Lagos in 2010.







“Today, neither did we see the refineries nor the billions of dollars at a time Nigeria Excess Accounts hovered around $17 billion. The refineries could have saved Nigeria over $200 billion expended on importation of refined petroleum products till date.”

He said Mr. Jonathan should keep quiet especially now that the hunger and poverty he allegedly imposed on the country is getting too harsh. He also expressed regret at demonstrating on Abuja streets in 2010 as a member of the defunct Save Nigeria Group for the ex-president to be made an executive president.

“Nor can one forget his melodious inaugural speech, 29 May, 2011, where he said, “The lessons we have learnt is that the resolution of the Niger Delta issue is crucial for the health of the nation.” Is the health of the nation not bleeding because of his planlessness and squandermania? With huge oil revenue cited above he stood a good chance of fixing the Niger Delta, but failed woefully.”

“He propelled his preferred Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and other cronies to loot dry our dear countrymen. Example, later day revelations are showing how $80 million was used by Mrs Madueke’ ally to purchase a luxury yacht, money which could have been utilized to build the best hospital in Yenogoa. Or is he not reminding us of the humongous foreign exchange used in buying choice estates locally and abroad?”, the VON DG said.

Mr Okechukwu added, “in sum the biggest headache of Buhari administration is the huge local and foreign debt amassed by the PDP’s 16 years misrule. On bail out fund and Paris Fund refund, Buhari has spent over N1 trillion on salary and pension arrears. He has also paid over $7 billion on obligations to International Oil Companies (IOC) with the little he got”.

But Reno Omokri in a statement wondered why the country has remained static in the Transparency international annual corruption perception index if indeed the President Buhari administration was fighting corruption.

“Mr. Okechukwu should note that the premier global agency universally recognised to gauge corruption is Transparency International who released an annual Corruption Perception Index”.

“It may surprise Mr. Okechukwu and his boss to know that the last time Nigeria made progress on Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index was in 2014 under former President Jonathan when we moved eight places from number 144 to number 136 under Goodluck Jonathan”.

According to him, ‘that year marked the most improvement Nigeria has ever made since Transparency International began publishing the annual Corruption Perception Index in 1995’.

Mr Omokri said Transparency International in arriving at its decision took note of the Jonathan administration’s e-wallet system that cut out the corruption in Nigeria’s fertilizer procurement system, the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) which weeded out 50,000 ghost workers from the Federal civil service, the cashless policy and the fact that the Jonathan government promptly fired two ministers (Professor Barth Nnaji and Stella Oduah) mentioned in corruption scandals”.

He noted that ever since 2014, Nigeria has not improved in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index ranking and has remained 136 in 2015 and are still 136 on the latest CPI ranking released in 2017.

“In the most recent CPI, Transparency International said and I quote “Some other large African countries have failed to improve their scores on the index. These include South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania and Kenya’”, he said.

“If it were true that the Buhari administration was really fighting corruption, why hasn’t Nigeria made progress in the CPI? The answer is because you can deceive some gullible Nigerians but you cannot deceive Transparency International”.

“With a Minister of Transport that admitted to spending $500,000 on a one-day dinner for Professor Wole Soyinka in your government, with a suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation who was caught red handed looting funds meant for IDPs and who has not been fired, arrested or prosecuted and with a padded budget scandal that spends borrowed monies on luxuries for favoured individuals, you can’t pull the wool over the eyes of Transparency International”, Mr Omokri wrote.

On the state of the economy Mr Omokri said “when Mr. Okechukwu talks about the economy faring better under this administration, one must wonder if he is also a drunkard like the President’s spokeswoman, Lauretta Onochie”.

“I suggest he should go to Wuse Market, Abuja, or Mile 12 Market Lagos or even Rimi Market Kano and say that. If he survives the experience then I will agree with him”.

“The fact remains that under the Jonathan administration, CNNMoney projected that our economy was the third fastest growing economy in the world with only China and Qatar ahead of us”.

“Did President Jonathan ‘railroad’ CNN Money? Or did he also railroad the former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, who said on October 12, 2012 as follows “Yes, we’ve been hearing about China and India for years …but it’s hard to believe what’s happening in Brazil, in Indonesia, in Nigeria too.”

“The fact remains that under Jonathan, Nigeria experienced unprecedented growth. I leave it to Nigerians to determine what they are experiencing today,” he added.