TheCable

Reno Omokri, former media aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has hit back at Bola Tinubu for alleging that there was grand corruption in the administration of his then principal.

Omokri said contrary to Tinubu’s claim that there was unprecedented graft during Jonathan’s time in office, the country got its best rating in anti-graft war under the former president.

While speaking in Abuja on Thursday, Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos state, had said: “The prior government used the public treasury as a private hedge fund or a charity that limited its giving only to themselves.

“So much money grew feet and ran away faster than Usain Bolt ever could. That which could have been spent on national development was squandered in ways that would cause the devil to blush.”

But Omokri described the allegations as baseless and lacking in facts.

In a statement, he said Nigeria moved from 144 to 136 in Transparency International‘s annual Corruption Perception Index In 2014 under the Jonathan administration.

The index measures perception of public corruption in a country.

“Transparency International observed the Jonathan administration’s fight against the corruption in Nigeria’s fertilizer procurement regime, the use of technology to remove 50,000 federal ghost workers and the speed at which the then President fired ministers accused of corruption or conflict of interests,” he said.

“From that time till today, Nigeria has not made any improvements and has remained at 136 where Jonathan left us because Transparency International deals with facts, not opinions or media trial.”

Omokri added that while there have been no convictions of financial misappropriation stemming from the Jonathan era other than media sensationalism, “we do know that it is a fact that the allegedly corrupt pension thief, Abdulrasheed Maina, was dismissed and declared wanted by the Jonathan administration.”

He also said: “We also now know that it is a fact that the present attorney general of the federation, Abubakar Malami, met with Maina in Dubai. We know that Maina’s family revealed in a press conference that Maina was invited back to Nigeria by the present government. It is also a fact that Maina was recalled, reinstated and given double promotion by the current administration.

“Moreover, we know from the head of service’s leaked memo that President Muhammadu Buhari was aware of this entire saga.

“Perhaps Asiwaju Bola Tinubu mistook the Usain Bolt speed at which Maina was smuggled back into the country and reinstated for the unproven claims of corruption under Jonathan.”

Omokri also said contrary to Tinubu’s claim that the Boko Haram insurgency would have worsened if Jonathan were to still be in power, the situation has deteriorated under the present administration.

He added: “It is a fact that between 2013 and 2014, Nigeria under President Jonathan was unfortunately listed as the fourth most terrorized nation in the world.

“However, in the latest Global Terrorism Index released yesterday (November 15, 2017) by the Institute for Economics and Peace, Nigeria has deteriorated from where Jonathan left it and is now the third most terrorized nation.”