TheCable

Reno Omokri, former aide to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, and Dele Farotimi, a campaign spokesperson for Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections, have disagreed over the trajectory of Nigeria under President Bola Tinubu.

Speaking on Inside Sources, a programme on Channels Television, on Friday, Omokri said the country is improving and relevant reforms are being effected by the Tinubu government. 

He said the current situation of the country is an improvement on the past, adding that “Nigeria is moving forward right now and we have to support Nigeria”.

“Nigeria is no longer a nascent democracy, our democracy has deepened. It amounts to intellectual dishonesty for anybody to say Nigeria is collapsing,” Omokri said.

“We are going through some growling pain, and we are being weaned but what is happening right now, I support it. The fuel subsidy had to go and we could not have had multiple exchange rates.

“We are seeing results. To say there is no rule of law in Nigeria and there is the rule of man, no. There is the rule of law in Nigeria.

“You can’t say things have never been this bad for Nigeria before. The facts on the ground do not bear that out. How many people have been arrested for hate speech? It is not happening. There is freedom of speech in Nigeria.”

On his part, Farotimi said Nigeria is in a precarious situation.

“The future of Nigeria appears more bleak today than it has ever been in my entire lifetime. Nigeria has never been close to the brink like it is today. So, I am not optimistic about the trajectory of my country,” he said.

“The most important thing that is responsible for where we are today is the complete breakdown of the rule of law.

“Nigeria as it is today is not ruled by law. It is ruled by impunity, by the whims of men and not institution of the state or by the laws.

“You can speak to political reforms in a society that is governed by law and that is rule-based but this is not that society.

“With the ascension to office of the man known as Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is to look for reforms? Can we depend on beneficiaries of an electoral heist to then reform themselves out of power?

“It is next to impossible.”