Omokri Is Suffering From Multiple-Personality Disorder

By Kikiowo Ileowo

My attention has been drawn to the rant of one Wendell Simlin, better known as Reno Omokri, disparaging the person of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola over facts revealed by the Osun governor on how former President Goodluck Jonathan and his cronies pillaged our national resources before he was eased out by vigilant Nigerian voters.

Reno’s outburst against Ogbeni does not deserve a response and the reasons are not far-fetched. Recall Omokri in a desperate bid to justify the petro-dollar looted under his boss, or perhaps diverted to his office, had lied by taking up the now infamous Wendell pseudonym to slander the former governor of Central bank by accusing him of sponsoring the Boko Haram terrorist group. It goes without saying that, for anyone with a multiple personality disorder, nothing is off limits in their books to justify their pay; hence, the end justifies the means.

For ease of understanding, multiple personality disorder is a severe form of dissociation, a mental process which produces a lack of connection in a person’s thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity. Omokri is obviously dissociated from reality; living a lie, surrounded by unseen forces, and believes in a distorted historical fact of a government he once actively participated in.

For the sake of clarity, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola whilst hosting a team of delegates from the Federal Government on the Digital Switch Over project explained how Nigeria got into this sorry state. Three indisputable facts given by the governor for the payment of modulated salary in his State are the following; economic downturn induced by brazen corruption, wanton theft of crude oil and mismanagement of the country’s resources by the Peoples  Democratic Party (PDP) led Federal Government under Goodluck Jonathan.

Has Reno forgotten so quickly that at least $20bn disappeared into thin air under his master’s watch? Lest we forget, never has Nigeria’s resources being plundered like was witnessed during the Jonathanian era. The brazen theft of cash and unprecedented looting of public funds under Goodluck Jonathan is an historical one since the entity called Nigeria was created. Obviously, Jonathan and his gang of thieves were obviously trying to outdo the colonial masters and all his predecessors combined. The Goodluck Jonathan led administration single-handedly redefined corruption in government.

Lest we forget, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala went on a borrowing spree to pay salaries of federal government workers shortly after she revealed over 400,000 barrels of crude oil was being stolen daily by government protected-plunderers, whilst her colleagues in other ministries busied themselves with thieving what was left in the treasury.

In fact, one of the notorious bandits that made up Jonathan’s cabinet was said to have chartered private jet at will to cater for her housemaid, whilst another abused her office by instructing agencies under her to purchase multi-million naira armoured vehicles for her leisure ride.

I will not belabour the issue of the ruin and destruction the Goodluck Jonathan era brought our way; however, my prayer is that may Nigeria never have to be governed by another president whose singular objective in leadership is to balkanize Nigeria.

Since Reno lacks the requisite knowledge on how governance works in Nigeria, let me take a moment to school him. Theoretically, Nigeria practices federalism. Except the Nigerian Constitution is amended, States within its domain will continue to depend on the federal government for sustenance, except for a few. Many of the resources are locked up in the hands of the federal government. Interestingly, there are 68 items in the exclusive list, with just around 30 on the concurrent list in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Osun for example has enough gold deposits, whose income can cater for a minimum of 50 years budget, is forced to go cap in hand to the federal government because the constitution acts as a major impediment to achieving our dreams as a State.

Beyond the rhetoric, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola continues to deliver on key infrastructural projects that will shape Osun’s landscape for the next 50 years. The Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola administration met a State in comatose, but will be leaving it come November 27, 2018 better than when he took over the reins of power. When he was sworn in, the IGR was an abysmal N300m; now, the State generates around N1bn monthly. Can things be better? Yes, and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s administration is working tirelessly to ensure that his Six points integral action plan is realised in order to improve the standard of living in the State of Osun.