Former Texas Mayor Accuses Reno Omokri Of Lying About Genocide In Nigeria
An American fact-finder and former mayor of Blanco, Texas, Mike Arnold, has accused former presidential aide Reno Omokri of spreading false information about the ongoing violence in Nigeria, describing him as a “pathological liar” attempting to distort facts and whitewash atrocities.
Arnold dismissed reports circulated by Omokri and his associates claiming that he (Arnold) had “debunked” allegations of genocide against Christians in Nigeria.
Omokri, a former media aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, had on Tuesday during a press briefing in Abuja, attended by Arnold, founder of Africa Arise International, argued that the killings and attacks across Nigeria did not amount to genocide.
“Saying there’s a genocide in Nigeria is like saying that in the United States, because 30,000 people, mostly black, are murdered every year, there’s a genocide against black Americans,” Omokri argued.
“That’s the same as claiming genocide against Christians here. It’s not true. But if you think it is, name names. Don’t just make baseless accusations.”
Omokri maintained that there was no credible evidence of a Christian genocide in Nigeria, adding that even Open Doors International, a global Christian persecution monitor, had not classified the situation as such.
“Open Doors themselves haven’t said there’s a genocide in Nigeria. They never used that word,” he said.
“And if you look at the Global Terror Index, Nigeria has actually improved, down from the third most terrorised country to around number eight.”
He added that while impunity in Nigeria remained a concern, it was being gradually addressed through military and police reforms.
“Impunity is ending,” Omokri claimed. “We can’t be everywhere at once, but the process is underway.”
However, in an X post on Wednesday, Arnold sharply refuted Omokri’s claims, describing them as false and malicious.
“Sleazy Omokri, a pathological liar, will go down in history as the Joseph Goebbels of the Nigerian Christian Genocide,” Arnold declared.
“His paid ‘reporters’ are saying that I ‘debunked’ claims of genocide.”
Arnold, who led a U.S. delegation on a fact-finding mission to Nigeria, said his team had visited multiple states, met both Christian and Muslim leaders, and toured several internally displaced persons (IDP) camps as part of an independent investigation into widespread violence.
“My only allegiance is to the truth and getting it out. I tagged those I thought would be most likely to trumpet what I was saying. I honestly don’t know much about Nigerian politics. Those were just the big influencers that kicked up on my feed,” he wrote on X.
“I came here with one instruction: to meet key people and tell the truth,” Arnold said during the press conference. “The truth is not comfortable, but it’s what remains when propaganda fails.”
The delegation, which included Professor Khalid Abubakar, Secretary-General of Jamaat al-Nasir al-Islam, and U.S. filmmaker Jeff Gibbs, briefed American policymakers, including Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Chip Roy, before departing for Nigeria.
Arnold clarified that, although Omokri had invited him, he had no financial or political ties to either Omokri or the Nigerian government.
“Reno Omokri called me while on a call with Nigeria’s National Security Adviser,” he explained. “But I am not his agent. I’ve not received, requested, or been offered a single kobo. I am here independently.”
Reading from a prepared statement titled “Statement on Widespread Violence and Displacement in Nigeria,” Arnold said his findings, backed by diplomats, human rights lawyers, and field investigators, documented a decade-long campaign of targeted violence.
He traced Nigeria’s descent into mass displacement to the rise of Boko Haram in 2011, noting that the country had gone from near-zero displacement to more than four million internally displaced persons in just over ten years.
According to Arnold, the pattern is consistent.
He attributed the ongoing violence to three intertwined drivers: radical Islamist conquest, illicit ‘blood mineral’ mining, and politically motivated demographic re-engineering.
“The term farmer herder clashes is, in many instances today, is cynical doublespeak. Weaponizing historical land disputes to mask jihadist conquest. For centuries, herders and farmers co-existed with rare, very rarely lethal disputes,” he said.
“Now villages are systematically razed, churches leveled, and tens of thousands are dead. This is a systematic terror and not grazing conflicts. A lie akin to calling Bosnia’s ethnic cleansing a neighborhood spat.”
Citing Article II of the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Arnold asserted that Nigeria’s situation meets the international legal threshold for genocide.
According to him, after five years of investigation, he could say, “The campaign of violence and displacement in northern and middle belt Nigeria does indeed constitute a calculated current and long-running genocide against Christian communities and other religious minorities without any reasonable doubt. To continue to deny this is to be complicit with these atrocities.”
Arnold warned that continued denial of the atrocities only emboldens perpetrators.
“To continue to deny this is to be complicit with these atrocities,” he said. “I say this not in anger, but in truth and grief. My stated assignment from my host was to speak the truth and I have done that to the best of my ability. I believe Nigeria has a bright future.”
“I believe in Christian Muslim harmony. I believe good people of every tribe and faith and party must stand against this evil, but first we must name it. Here I stand,” he added.
He concluded that his team’s report would be submitted to U.S. policymakers and international human rights organisations upon return.
“Here I stand. I can do no other. So help me God,” Arnold said.
Titilope Adako is a talented and intrepid journalist, dedicated to shedding light on the untold stories of Osun State and Nigeria. Through incisive reporting, she tackles a broad spectrum of topics, from politics and social justice to culture and entertainment, with a commitment to accuracy, empathy, and inspiring positive change.
