By Nicholas Adesina
We wake up each day, count it a blessing and go about our daily activities to earn a living.
Unfortunately for Reno Omokri, he’s faced with the same dilemma, the only difference is that of late he’s had no job and has taken to social media as consolation. Well he’s not entirely jobless, if you take into account the fact he sold shirts and books in Leah Sharibu’s name, scamming her parents and unsuspecting people.
But if he is not up to some old tricks, he is usually eking out a living out of his obsession for none other than the Vice President.
Similar to the holy grail or the elixir of life, a day can’t go by without the self-acclaimed pastor a crony to one of Nigeria’s most corrupt governments attempting to take a dig at renowned Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.
Who requires that we shed light on the crooked character that once took on the personage of Wendell Simlin?
Lamido Sanusi – the Emir of Kano who was widely respected in the international community – had been suspended as the Governor of the Central bank a month after accusing the government of corruption.
A few days later, a number of journalists were surprised to receive an email from an unknown man, Wendell Simlin, which linked Sanusi with the militant Islamist group Boko Haram.
It was actually written by one of the president’s aides, after his name was found in a Word document attached. Yes, Reno Omokri, the one and only. Social media advisor to President Goodluck Jonathan.
Not long afterwards, a Califonia-based woman, Deborah Campbell, told Sahara Reporters in a series of e-mails and telephone conversation that her son, based in Hercules, California, is the real Wendel Simlin.
She explained that she is married to Mr. Omokri’s brother-in-law and that the president’s aide exploited the relationship to perpetrate forgery.
Back in Nigeria, Feyi Fawehinmi, one of the team who investigated the letters said, “We just did a simple right click on the document and looked at the ‘properties’,” and his name was there as the author.
This simpleton attempts at smearing the names of more accomplished persons obviously hasn’t been improved upon in the five years since. For only yesterday Reno took his darts to Instagram and almost verbatim spewed the exact same rhetoric that another established wailer @aishayesufu had a couple of days prior chugged out questioning the roles and functions of Vice President Osinbajo in the present administration.
Dare I say Reno took to Instagram in respect to the bashing he got on Twitter the last time he exfoliated his crass and idiosyncrasies in the community. Anyone remembers #RenoUndarted?
Seems he’s also not forgotten the bashing but assumes Nigerians have forgotten that we’ve realized he’s been fraudulently collecting money in the name of Leah Sharibu from donors across the world in the course of his travels. We are still waiting for the audited accounts showing royalties being paid to Leah’s parents as he alleged.
Rather than provide proof, Reno went underground and thinking that the clime was clear popped his head out to once again go about earning his Dubai strategy bread.
Nigerians are usually not quick to be ruffled, but the attendant response that greeted him and his post yesterday, I’m sure Reno now knows that his goose is cooked so expect one of Nigeria’s most slimy characters to reinvent himself in another shoddy pseudonym in the nearest future because his obsession with Osinbajo is his last claim to relevance.
-Nicholas Adesina writes from Ibadan, Oyo State