Prime Business Africa
By Valentine Obienyem
Barr. Reno Omokri has become one of the most unserious public commentators in Nigeria today.
A man whose positions shift with the wind can hardly be said to possess a position at all. As Søren Kierkegaard observed, “Purity of heart is to will one thing,” yet Reno wills everything that keeps him afloat: relevance today, appointment tomorrow, denial the next.
He oscillates between posing as a pastor and posturing as an intellectual, masking emptiness with pedantry and verbosity. In truth, he stands for nothing. He is precisely the kind of hollow figure Gabriel Marcel warned against: a man cut loose from belief, anchored to nothing, and dependent on nothing beyond power itself.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelNigerians are well aware of the accusations Reno once made against President Bola Tinubu. For those who may not remember, it is important to restate them. Reno did not accuse Tinubu of just one wrongdoing; he attributed to him, with evidence, almost every imaginable moral and political failing. He described him as a drug addict, a drug lord, the most corrupt Nigerian alive, a certificate forger, and a man unfit in character and history to lead the country.
He warned that allowing such a person to become president would be a national disaster, arguing that Nigeria would degenerate into a narco-state similar to Colombia, where criminality would be normalized and corruption elevated to state policy. Reno was so sure that any specimen from any part of Tinubu’s body – hair, saliva, sweat, urine – that underwent testing would show traces of many variants of drugs.
On multiple platforms, including Nigerian electronic media, Reno argued that Nigeria must never elect, in his own words, a drug lord, a supremely corrupt politician, and a certificate forger, warning that doing so would amount to a moral and institutional collapse. He maintained that such an election would signal to international drug traffickers that Nigeria is a safe haven, reward fraud at the highest level, and teach young Nigerians that deception is more profitable than integrity.
According to him, if corruption was on the throne, it would cease to be an aberration and become a governing principle, the rule of law would be reduced to a slogan, institutions would be hollowed out, and public office transformed into an instrument of organized plunder – making national decline not a risk, but an inevitability.
Very soon, Reno began to eulogize the same Tinubu he had once denounced, portraying him as an angel of light. He even dined with him dressed in “Aso Oke,” presenting it, as Alcibiades, his Athenian variant, once did, as evidence that he had become one with Tinubu in body and spirit.
At the time, many Nigerians questioned the reasoning – legal, moral, or political – behind his appointment as an ambassador.
READ ALSO:If Not Now, When? What the Nomination of Reno Omokri Says About Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Presidency!
Some suggested that Tinubu appointed him not only as a reward or a bribe, but also as recognition of a mutual understanding: that each had a vested interest in protecting the other. If Reno had truly lied about Tinubu, why reward him? If he had spoken falsehoods, why elevate him? One prevailing view was that the appointment was a calculated effort to silence Reno, prevent further revelations, and compel him to recant or deny his previous claims.
Is this not why Tinubu is often described as a master strategist? By appointing Reno, he effectively neutralized him.
Today, Reno not only refrains from revealing more; he actively denies what he once passionately defended. The documents he claimed to have procured no longer exist – at least in his public narrative. He is recently writing tomes to wash his master and make him appear clean.
Reno now behaves like a man permanently on the defensive, barking endlessly in his master’s interest because bones have been thrown his way. He is visibly uncomfortable, especially when confronted with his own past statements. This discomfort became evident when Mr. Omoyele Sowore, in his ongoing forensic battle, tendered video evidence of Reno’s earlier categorical statements as proof that President Tinubu is indeed a drug dealer without character. Even the presiding judge expressed shock that the DSS cleared such a man despite the volume of evidence placed before the court.
Yes, he was cleared the Nigerian way because, even during the time of his clearance, a lot of clandestine phone calls and pressure were reportedly mounted. The judge who expressed surprise merely pretended to act as a citizen in Plato’s Republic rather than in Nigeria inhabited by the likes of Reno and Tinubu.
What those who love truth have as a weapon today is that the evidence of Mr. President’s despicable character comes from his appointees and those who, being close to him, should know better. Reno is today one of them. This is why it is not surprising that the evidence of his character is being proved today by sincere reference to whom he truly is, as revealed by his ambassador.
In a global context, the world is witnessing renewed seriousness in the fight against drug trafficking. From Venezuela to Colombia, drug barons are being pursued, extradited, and prosecuted. We have seen how even sitting leaders are not immune when evidence emerges. Documentary evidence exists, once cited by Reno himself, linking President Tinubu to past drug-related trading in the United States.
While forwarding the documents and citing his ambassador as the source for conclusive proof to President Donald Trump of the USA, we are also prepared to forward these same materials to any country where Reno is posted as ambassador. Such countries should be faced with a clear choice: either reject him on grounds of credibility and complicity, or accept the risk of hosting a man whose own testimony implicates the president he now defends. It will hopefully contribute abundantly to how the host country will view not just the ambassador, but the one he represents. “Birds of a feather,” as it is said, “flock together.”
Reno represents exactly what the Germans call the “zeitgeist”, the spirit of the time. He is a mirror of the age of Tinubu, a reflection of shifting loyalties, moral flexibility, and the transactional nature of influence.
In this sense, he is, like Bayo Onanuga, Daniel Bwala and Femi Fani-Kayode, a product of the system he now serves and a symbol of what Tinubu represents: power that rewards compliance, punishes truth, and transforms critics into apologists. Reno’s story is not just about one man; it is about the era, the values it elevates, and the compromises it demands.
He is, in every sense, the embodiment of his master’s spirit.
