• Says ambitions and egos of Atiku, Obi will frustrate the alliance •Defends Tinubu, says he has no criminal record with FBI • Explains that alleged FBI letter of 2003
***• Says ambitions and egos of Atiku, Obi will frustrate the alliance ***
•Defends Tinubu, says he has no criminal record with FBI
• Explains that alleged FBI letter of 2003 shows no arrest record, warrant against President
Deji Elumoye in Abuja
Nigeria’s Ambassador-designate to Mexico, Reno Omokri, has described as dead on arrival the coalition being put together by opposition political parties ahead of the January 2027 presidential election.
Omokri said the coalition would not get off the ground because the leading presidential contenders in the opposition will not be willing to subordinate their individual ambitions at this advanced stage of politicking.
Speaking on Tuesday in Abuja at the City Boy Movement Media One-on-One with Otega Ogra, Omokri stated that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and ex-Anambra State Governor Peter Obi will not agree on who should surrender his presidential ambition for the other, saying the anticipated opposition alliance would ultimately unravel over leadership and candidacy.
To Omokri, the individuals involved in the opposition coalition possessed strong political ambitions and egos that would make the compromises required for a viable coalition difficult.
He said, “It’s not going to happen because the people in the opposition, they have very big egos.
“Peter Obi has actually even a larger ego than Waziri Atiku Abubakar. It’s just that Peter Obi has self-esteem issues, so because he has self-esteem issues, he is able to hide the big ego.
“Peter Obi is not going to step down for Waziri Atiku Abubakar. Waziri Atiku Abubakar is not going to step down for Peter Obi. None of those people are going to step down for the other. So it’s dead on arrival.”
Omokri predicted that although discussions around an alliance could continue, the principal actors might eventually keep their distance from negotiations once the difficult question of who becomes the presidential candidate arises.
He said, “In fact, let me tell you what is going to happen. They will have that meeting. They will send representatives. The big fish themselves will not even go.”
On what might happen if the opposition eventually succeeded in forming the coalition, Omokri maintained that he did not consider the possibility realistic, saying, “I’m not going to spend my intellectual prowess discussing what’s not going to happen.”
He was, however, quick to predict that
President Bola Tinubu would be re-elected in 2027, basing his projection partly on the president’s expanding political support among governors.
Omokri claimed Tinubu won in 2023 under considerably more difficult circumstances than he was likely to face in the next election.
He stated, “You know, the best predictor of future events is past events. If this man won an election when he had, I think, just 19 governors, maybe probably 20 governors, the central bank moved against him, and then he had a lot of things going against him, and he won, how much so now that he has probably over 30 governors? I mean, he is going to win the election.”
He also cited improving macroeconomic indicators, including economic expansion and GDP growth outpacing population growth, as factors that could strengthen Tinubu’s re-election prospects.
Omokri said, “The economy has added $67 billion in two years. Our GDP is now growing faster than our population.”
He stated that some critics of the administration were already acknowledging improvements in macroeconomic stability, predicting that opposition figures should prepare for another four years outside government.
“What they are preparing for right now is four more years of opposition, of activism,” he said.
On security, Omokri said Nigeria had recorded progress under Tinubu, contrasting the current situation with major attacks recorded during the Muhammadu Buhari administration, including the 2022 Kuje prison attack, the Abuja-Kaduna train attack, and assaults on military facilities.
He said several wanted terrorist and bandit commanders had either been killed, arrested, or prosecuted under the present administration, while improvements had also been recorded in measures against terrorism financing.
He stated, “There is progress in Nigeria. There’s a lot of progress, but it’s just because our people are very emotional, and they don’t have a very long memory. If you focus on what cannot lie, the facts, you’re going to see that security has improved.”
Omokri also defended government’s economic reforms, saying easier access to foreign exchange and improvements in the business environment are encouraging private-sector activity.
He stated that government should principally create the environment for employment rather than serve as the direct provider of jobs, urging young Nigerians to exploit opportunities in manufacturing, tourism, transportation, and small businesses.
Omokri also rose in stout defence of Tinubu’s past personal records, saying emphatically that he has no criminal record with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
According to him, official checks carried out by the agency found no criminal arrest record or warrant against Tinubu.
Omokri said, “There is no criminal FBI record against President Bola Tinubu. There’s nothing like that.”
Omokri, an ex-critic of Tinubu, declared that there was a clear difference between the FBI possessing records relating to an individual and that person having a criminal record, arguing that the two have been deliberately distorted in the renewed controversy over the president’s records in the United States.
He made available for everyone to see a 2003 FBI communication to the Nigerian government, transmitted through the American Embassy, which he claimed cleared Tinubu of any criminal arrest record or warrant.
Reading directly from the document, the envoy said, “In relation to your letter dated February 3, 2003… regarding Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a record check of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Crime Information Centre was conducted. The results of the check were negative for any criminal arrest records, warrants or wanted notices for Bola Tinubu.”
According to him, the communication followed an inquiry by the Nigerian government to the FBI during the tenure of a former Inspector-General of Police.
He described the document as a vindication of the president and urged Nigerian media and other interested persons to independently approach the US authorities to authenticate it rather than merely reporting his assertions.
He said, “This is just a complete vindication of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. If you’re watching, I say Nigerian media tomorrow, I don’t want you to hear that Reno Omokri claims. No, that’s lazy journalism. Go to the American Embassy.”
Omokri also talked about the date of birth contained in the document, saying the FBI letter gave Tinubu’s date of birth as March 29, 1952.
He objected to insinuations that the current legal proceedings in the United States represented a fresh criminal case against Tinubu, saying they arose from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by American transparency advocate Aaron Greenspan for records relating to an investigation dating back to 1993.
Omokri stated, “There is no 2026 case. There’s none. What happened is that a gentleman by the name of Aaron Greenspan filed a FOIA request. The FOIA request, for those who don’t know, is just Freedom of Information Act. We have it here in Nigeria.
“He filed, so it’s not like there is a new case. There is no case. This is a 1993 investigation. The target of the investigation was not President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
He further explained that the existence of FBI records concerning a person should not be interpreted as evidence of criminality.
“A record is just that, a record. There’s a difference between a record and a criminal record,” he said.
He stated that FBI conducted background checks in connection with various official processes, including immigration and visa applications, meaning that information held by the agency on an individual does not necessarily indicate involvement in crime.
According to him, “What these fellows… want to just confuse Nigerians and confound them is to make them think that there is a criminal record. If you study whatever they are bandying about, the word criminal record is not there. There are records.”
Omokri claimed that other Nigerian political figures also had records with American or international institutions, but stressed that the mere existence of such records should not be equated with criminal convictions.
He also defended efforts to prevent unrestricted disclosure of some of Tinubu’s records, arguing that law enforcement files could contain sensitive personal information, including biometric and family details.
Omokri stated that such records could contain fingerprints, eye scans, financial information, family details and, in some circumstances, medical or DNA-related information.
He said, “Would someone not want his private information released to the public, regardless of what? Your FBI record is going to contain biometrics, meaning that your fingerprints, your eye scan. It’s going to contain details about your body. It’s going to contain details about your blood group. It’s going to contain details about your DNA — not in all cases.”
The envoy likened the concerns over disclosure to the risks associated with publicly releasing sensitive biometric information, arguing that such information could potentially be abused.
Omokri asked politicians demanding the disclosure of Tinubu’s records to make their own comparable records public.
He particularly challenged former Anambra State governor and Nigeria Democratic Congress presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to release any FBI records concerning him before demanding the release of Tinubu’s.
“Release your own FBI record. Once you release your FBI record… then you have the moral authority to ask for President Tinubu to release his,” Omokri told Obi.
Justifying his latest defence of Tinubu, Omokri said his position changed after he personally investigated some of the allegations he had previously believed and recalled travelling to Chicago while still opposed to the president to investigate questions surrounding the president’s academic history at Chicago State University.
According to him, his intention then was politically damaging to Tinubu.
He said, “I landed in Chicago with the express intention to disgrace Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
He said he visited Chicago State University with a witness who remained a supporter of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and was presented with evidence establishing that Tinubu attended and graduated from the university.
“I was given incontrovertible evidence that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu not only attended that school, but that he graduated cum laude,” he said.
Omokri said he publicly corrected his previous position, despite campaigning against Tinubu because the evidence he found contradicted the allegations.
He said he, nevertheless, continued to hold his earlier position on the US civil forfeiture controversy until documents presented during litigation arising from the 2023 presidential election prompted him to investigate further.
Omokri stated, “When we had the court case, things came to rise. You know, a lot of things were presented at the court. So I was able to get certified true copies of these documents, and it established beyond a reasonable doubt that I was wrong. This man was not who I thought he was.”
Omokri said his examination of the documents convinced him that the US matter was a civil forfeiture proceeding rather than a criminal conviction against Tinubu.
“It was a completely civil case, and it was not even against him.”
According to the envoy, he subsequently publicly withdrew his previous allegations before personally apologising to Tinubu.
Omokri said, “As soon as the Supreme Court gave its judgement, I was on Channels Television, the biggest political show in Nigeria, Politics Today. I said, ‘Hey, I believed it at that time. I have found out that I’m wrong. I’m sorry.’
“And then I contacted, I believe it was somebody who could bring me in front of the president, and I apologised in person to President Bola Tinubu.”
Omokri, however, stressed that he genuinely believed the allegations when he made them.
“At that time, I believed everything that I said, everything that I said,” he stated.
Asked if his defence of Tinubu was influenced by his nomination as Nigeria’s ambassador to Mexico, Omokri said no, stressing that his change of position and public defence of the president preceded the appointment.
According to him, “I think that I will defend the truth, whether or not I’m an ambassador or anything. Before the president appointed me an ambassador, I was defending the truth.”
The envoy, who previously worked closely with and campaigned for Atiku, also maintained that he had not defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
“I am not an APC member. I have only been in one political party. I joined the PDP… and I’ve never changed political party, never,” Omokri stated.
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