Part 4: Pastor Reno Omokri – The Munafiq
By: Dr. Salihu Lukman
Introduction
This is the last part of a 4-part series exposing who is Pastor Reno Omokri and what he actually stands for. The first 3 parts delved into how Omokri schemed his way into the hearts of the Muslims by writing extensively in their defense and support and ultimately bundled all the major Islamic practices and beliefs into some copycat obtained from Ethiopian ancient practices and religion rather than from direct revelation from the Almighty God. He did not stop there, he went on to assert that prophet Muhammad (SAW) and his followers have an uncertain future in the afterlife. This deliberate distortion and disinformation about fundamental Islamic principles by a learned Christian pastor to indirectly portray Islam as a fake religion is what qualified him to be called Dan Mission Badda Musulmi in Hausa. Omokri’s treacherous antics did not stop at Muslims and Islam alone, he proceeded to scheme his way into the hearts of the Northern Nigerian people who are predominantly Muslims by always writing in their defense against the Southerners, although he is one of them from Delta State but brought up in the Northern Sokoto State. He recently described himself as indigenously Southern, but socially and morally Northern. Who would then expect that Omokri would go out of his way to indirectly support the killing of the great Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, by raining accolades on his killer Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu who also hailed from Delta State like Omokri, appoint himself as Buhari tormentor, yet, eulogizes Tinubu and all his policies even more than Tinubu’s official media aides and minister of information, cast unnecessary aspersions on most prominent Northern Islamic scholar and the best-performing minister of the Buhari regime in the person of Sheikh Pantami. The one-word summary of someone who embodies all the above attitudes is MUNAFIQ (hypocrite).
Nzeogwu, The Patriot & Nationalist – What a Misnomer!
I will not use lengthy paragraphs to describe who is Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto and what were his achievements.
(1) He was the most revered and influential leader the North had ever produced.
(2) His uncommon concern and love for the North and its development saw him relinquish the most exalted position of the 1st Nigerian Prime Minister to maintain a lower position as the Premier of the Northern Region. This unmatched and unparalleled selflessness of Sardauna had no equal in world history.
(3) He was also a religious leader who did not discriminate against Christians. He suggested the formation of the Muslim World League and was its pioneer vice president. He converted thousands of Maguzawa (pagans) into Islam together with Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi and founded the Jama’atu Nasril Islam.
On 13 January 2024, Omokri posted on his walls, the circumstances surrounding the first Nigerian military coup. Although, the coup was unsuccessful, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (Prime Minister), Akintola (Premier of the Western Region), and other government officials were killed. He started by extolling the courageousness of Sardauna’s wife, Hafsatu, who stood in front of Sardauna when Nzeogwu went to kill him and took bullets from Nzeogwu first before Sardauna. They both died from Nzeogwu’s bullets. A true Northerner will never forgive Sardauna’s killer or make excuses for him for killing Sardauna, let alone shower him with accolades such as a patriot or nationalist or describe him as one of the most patriotic Nigerians ever. Omokri did all of the above despite parading himself as Dan Arewa (Northerner). In the same article, he never expressed any discontent that the great Sardauna was killed. He simply narrated the incident, showered encomiums on the killer, Nzeogwu, and provided useless excuses for him. This clearly indicates that pastor Omokri is happy that Sardauna was killed.
Read the following excerpts from Omokri’s post.
“Despite the above, Chukwuma Nzeogwu was not a tribalist. That description best fit Ifeajuna, not Nzeogwu. Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu was completely detribalised. HE WAS A PATRIOT AND A NATIONALIST. Yes, he did gun down some of his troops. But not for ethnic reasons. He wanted a better Nigeria. He was a revolutionary, and for your information, was one of those who inspired Thomas Sankara.”
“Nzeogwu meant well for Nigeria and was never a psychopath. In fact, he never called his action a coup. He called it a Revolution. He was somewhat impulsive, but that was about his only fault. This was a man who neither drank nor womanised. He was almost an ascetic.”
“The late Major Chukwuka NZEOGWU WAS ONE OF THE MOST PATRIOTIC NIGERIANS EVER. But he was naive.”
Omokri, where is your love for Arewa and the Muslims that you practically rained accolades on the killer of the most prominent figure Arewa has ever produced? Is it because you share the same state with Nzeogwu although you are from different tribes? Could you be socially and morally Dan Arewa and turn around to abuse the Northern and Muslim sensibilities by celebrating the killer of Sardauna? Were you indirectly happy that Nzeogwu killed Sardauna such that the only fault with Nzeogwu when he killed Sardauna was impulsivity and naivety as you stated above? Omokri only fell short of declaring Nzeogwu a national hero with the types of accolades that he rained on him and the stupid excuses he accorded him all to whitewash his heinous act of wanton killings.
Sheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi reported in his autobiography titled ‘Where I Stand’, that Nzeogwu had sent for him after he killed Sardauna. Sheikh Gumi was taken to the military barracks to meet with Nzeogwu. Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu asked Sheikh Gumi to reveal the whereabouts of the supposed arsenal that he suspected the late Sardauna had gathered from Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations. Gumi responded that Sardauna had never received nor gathered any arsenal. Two obvious reasons led to this interrogation. First, Sheikh Gumi would always accompany the late Premier to Saudi Arabia for his hajj (pilgrimage) or lesser hajj (Umrah), or when he would attend any meetings of the Muslim World League of which the Premier was the pioneer vice president and remained so until his death. Sheikh Gumi would also accompany the Premier on his da’awah (calling people to Islam) outings. In essence, Gumi was the unofficial personal special adviser to the Premier on Islamic affairs in addition to his official capacity as the Grand Qadi of the Northern Region. Second and most important, Major Nzeogwu was a paranoid bigot and was never truly a patriot, nationalist, or revolutionary. He was a psychopathic monster who personally gunned down the Premier, his wife, and some of his troops at will. Yet, Pastor Reno Omokri, a pathological manipulator, wants to rewrite history to cleanse Nzeogwu of his manifest paranoia, bigotry, and psychopathy. Nzeogwu could not come to terms with the Premier’s ever-growing influence in the North and his harmless Islamic disposition. This is the true reflection of Nzeogwu’s personality; a paranoid, bigot, and a psychopathic killer, no more no less!
Buhari Tormentor Turned Tinubu Sycophant & Praise Singer
As a disclaimer, I am not a politician, and I don’t write on politics. So, politicians and their apologists should not come after me on this because I am not making a political analysis. That said, who is former president Muhammadu Buhari?
(1) He was a governor, minister, and 2-time president of Nigeria with a cult-like followership in the North.
(2) In recent times, or probably since the beginning of politics in Nigeria, the North has never seen a more popular politician than Buhari. I am not in any way implying that Buhari was the best president the North has ever produced. Like every other Nigerian president, he did well in some areas and performed poorly in others. Politicians and political analysts would tell you better.
(3) He was the most prominent Northerner who openly declared his support for the implementation of Shariah in Northern Nigeria back in the early 2000s when most other prominent Northerners either kept mum or openly antagonized the move.
Pastor Reno Omokri – a staunch PDP member, and a former media aide to former president Goodluck Jonathan – appointed himself to an unknown position called Buhari Tormentor. Buhari belongs to the APC party. He would chastise him on his social media handles and follow him to London to stage protests in front of Buhari’s lodge whenever Buhari was in London when he was president.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is also from the APC party like Buhari, took the realms of power from Buhari in May last year. All of a sudden, Omokri changed his unofficial position in the government indirectly, from Buhari Tormentor to Tinubu Sycophant and Praise Singer. However, he did not call himself as such in the case of Tinubu as he did in the case of Buhari. But that is truly the unofficial position that he appointed himself to in Tinubu’s government. All the presidential media team – consisting of a special advisor and special assistants on media, new media, etc. – and the minister of information combined is not doing a better job than what Omokri is doing to defend all government policies and eulogize the president for always doing a good job in running the affairs of the country. He would go out of his to discharge his unofficial duty as a sycophant and praise singer and would be economical with the truth to disinform the public just to project Tinubu’s policies as the best and conveniently heap all blame for any negative outcome from Tinubu’s policies on Buhari. I will buttress this point with only one simple example from Omokri’s propaganda. Mark you, I am not appraising Buhari’s or Tinubu’s policies here nor am I giving my opinions on their policies.
After celebrating his 50th birthday in Kenya on 22 January 2024 when the Naira nosedived down south and there was unprecedented inflation in the country, Omokri made a video in which he interviewed a Kenyan about the prices of fuel and electricity in Kenya. The price of a liter of fuel is $1.5 (N2,250) and the average monthly electricity bill of $200 (N300,000). He went further to imply that Nigerians were unnecessarily groaning over the high price of commodities because, compared to the prices of items in Kenya that are many times higher than what obtains in Nigeria, they have no reason to complain. He called on the Nigerian government to increase the minimum wage to a living wage. Omokri knowingly refused to compare the minimum wages of the two countries which will explain and rationalize why Kenya has higher prices of commodities than Nigeria. If he did that, his hypothesis that Nigerians were unnecessarily complaining about living expenses would not have seen the light of day. Depending on the location, Kenyan minimum wage ranges from $70 to $130 which is about N105,000 to N195,000 which translates roughly into 3 – 6 times what Nigerians receive as minimum wage. I am not an economist, but you don’t need someone to tell you that a lower minimum wage, will lead to a lower standard of living and lower prices of goods and services. Conversely, a higher minimum wage leads to a higher standard of living and consequently higher prices of goods and services. Omokri is a very intelligent person, tactical and manipulative in ways you would never expect. Get this fact borne at the back of your mind whenever you read his article because you still stand to gain from his posts but you have to be very analytical and objective. Otherwise, he would mislead you straight off without you noticing. Be very careful!
I am not trying to say that ferocious criticism of Buhari is wrong or that becoming a praise singer to Tinubu is wrong, no. I want you to see a pattern in Omokri’s criticisms or lack of it and how he goes out of his way to irrationally criticize or praise someone for his selfish interest, especially those that the North holds very dear.
Between Pantami & Omokri, Who Is The Real Munafiq?
Who is Sheikh Isa Pantami?
(1) He is the first professor of cybersecurity in Nigeria, arguably the best-performing and active minister of the Buhari regime, and probably the best minister of communications Nigeria has ever seen. He was also very close to Buhari.
(2) He is the most renowned Islamic scholar in Northern Nigeria, judging by how his annual Ramadan Tafsir is watched and listened to by millions of people from different Islamic sects and neighboring countries. He is one of the most gifted Islamic scholars Northern Nigeria has ever seen, blessed with a photographic memory that resembles that of Imam Al-Shafi’i.
On 5 February 2024, Omokri wrote an article in which he labeled Pantami a Munafiq because he said, “Insecurity in Abuja and Nigeria is worsening”. According to Omokri, Pantami’s alleged ‘silence’ when kidnappings and other terrorist activities were taking place when he was in government as a minister and his above comment on insecurity earned him the title of a Munafiq. I will not delve into presenting the numerous instances in which Pantami spoke on insecurity when he was a minister. Let us assume that Pantami never spoke on insecurity when he was a minister but chose to speak on it only recently when he was not in government. Does he merit being labeled a Munafiq on these grounds alone? Definitely NO! Now, let us turn back to Pantami’s accuser, Pastor Omokri. Given all the analyses of his actions or inactions which I presented in this 4-part series, is Omokri not the real Munafiq who hides under a pretense of his love of Muslims, Islam, and the North to tactically render Islam as an inauthentic religion that is merely a copycat from Ethiopia and whose followers and its prophet have an uncertain future in the hereafter in addition to going after those prominent and respected Northerners and reduce them to rubble or openly celebrate their killers? In my opinion, Pastor Reno Omokri is the real Munafiq here not Sheikh Pantami. What Omokri did is called Projection in Personality Psychology whereby a person projects his flaws onto someone else. It is a form of gaslighting and one of the main red flags for identifying a narcissist. Is Omokri also a narcissist in addition to being a Munafiq? I will leave you to answer that question. I have written an 8-part series on narcissists and their various manipulative antics. You can read them on my website to understand narcissism and then answer the question. All I know is that Omokri embodies hypocrisy, projection/gaslighting, lying, distortion, vindictiveness, disinformation, superficiality, attention-seeking, manipulation, and grandiosity. Relate with him at your own peril!
Salihu Lukman is an assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of Hafr Al Batin, Saudi Arabia