Former presidential aide Reno Omokri writes open letter to the minister of Information. Read below

Dear Honourable Minister Lai Mohammed, Greetings and congratulations on your recent and well deserved appointment as Nigeria's Minister of Information. You may recall that we met on the set of 'Politics Today' in May of 2011 soon after I was interviewed by Deji Bademosi and just before you were interviewed.

The purpose of my letter to you today is in response to your statement made on Monday the 21st of December, 2015 in which you accused former President Goodluck Jonathan, whom I served as one of three spokesmen, of being responsible for the current excruciating fuel scarcity now subsisting in Nigeria.

Your exact words were "What I will be telling Nigerians is that what we met on ground is such that we are paying for the sins of the last administration.....One of the reasons for the fuel scarcity was the inability of the last government to make adequate provision for fuel subsidy". My candid take on your message to Nigerians is that it is an abdication of responsibility on your part and does not project you and the government you represent as being responsible. Government, as you very well know, is a continuum. One government takes over from where the other stopped and to say that an action in December of 2015 (six months after ex President Jonathan handed over to the incumbent on May 29th, 2015, ) is the fault of the last President, is to confer super human powers on Jonathan.

To prove to you that it is wrong to blame the former President, I will quote the words of the incumbent President. A month ago, President Buhari, while speaking to the Nigerian community in the Iranian capital, Tehran, said “I believe if you are in touch back at home, you would have been told that already there is some improvement in power". Those were the words of President Muhammadu Buhari in Tehran on November 25th, 2015. You, Honourable Minister, also boasted about the improvement in power back in August 2015, when you attributed the improvement to the 'body language' of the 'new sheriff' in town. You may recall that you said "I say it anywhere I go that even though we have not added one single megawatt to power, there has been improvement.

My colleagues in the PDP will say no; that’s not true. But I maintain that this improvement is as a result of the kind of integrity that President Buhari has brought to leadership." Now, you and I know that despite what you said about the President's "body language", there is absolutely no way that any action or inaction of President Muhammadu Buhari could have led to an improvement in power.

All the new power stations that have come on stream this year were either built or completed by Jonathan. Absolutely all of them were conceived, funded, built and commissioned by Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Presidents, the same party that you said had destroyed Nigeria. On October 19th, 2013, then President Jonathan completed and commissioned the 530 Megawatts Omotosho Power station Phase 2 begun by his predecessor.

On February 20th, 2015, he commissioned the 750 MW Olorunsogo II Power Station in Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State. On March 24th, 2015, Jonathan also commissioned the Phase I 504MW (Simple Cycle Gas) Alaoji Power Plant at Umuobasi-Ukwu, Abia State. Former President Jonathan was also the leader who successfully privatized major chunks of our power generation and distribution infrastructure. He also created the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading PLC.

So concerned was President Jonathan to know the state of electricity provision that I had to do regular, sometimes weekly, polls and surveys on Twitter to get the public's feedback on the state of power in their locales. Yet, despite all these, President Buhari and you, Honourable Minister, were not shy at taking credit for the improvement in electricity in far away Tehran and Lagos at various times this year. One wonders why the same "integrity" you credited for automatically improving power cannot provide fuel?

Don't you think it is a bit rich to blame ex President Jonathan for the current fuel subsidy especially given the fact that leading lights of your party resisted and rejected the ex President's move to do away with fuel subsidy by deregulating the down stream sector of the petroleum sector? Indeed Honourable Minister, you may recall that as the National Publicity Secretary of the then Action Congress of Nigeria, you released a statement condemning the then government's plans to deregulate the petroleum industry and remove fuel subsidy and also said that the removal of fuel subsidy was "a threat to Nigeria's unity".

Sir, you would agree with me that it is only honourable to take the bitter with the sweet. I am reminded of my 10 year old daughter's comments to me every time I accuse her of watching too much television. She quotes a line from the Disney movie, 'A Bug's Life' in which Hopper says to Atta "First rule of leadership: Everything is your fault". If my daughter at 10 is aware of this rule, shouldn't a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who also happens to be over 60 years of age, and who also happens to be the official spokesperson of the current administration know this rule?

A bad workman may blame his tools, but it takes an irresponsible workman to blame his predecessor! When Jonathan became President on May 6th, 2010, he met a comatose railway network. He did not blame his predecessors. Rather, he went to work. Within two years, he successfully rehabilitated a significant portion of our national railway infrastructure and had restored intra and inter city routes for the first time decades.

He made it possible for Nigerians to travel from Lagos to Kano for less than $10 (₦1600). There were services from Port Harcourt to Enugu, Makurdi to Port Harcourt and Gombe-Kafanchan-Kaduna to mention but a few. For the first time in decades, there was a direct rail transport from Tin Can Island Port in Lagos all the way to Kano with stops along the way. Jonathan successfully built the brand new standard gauge 187 kilometer Abuja-Kaduna railway which will make it possible to live in Kaduna and work in Abuja.

Within Lagos, he introduced air conditioned fast Diesel Multiple Unit trains, the first of its type in Nigeria. I quite remember that when I wrote about these accomplishments, members and sympathizes of your party publicly labeled me a liar. I remained a liar in the eyes of the Nigerian public until my recent surprise vindication by the new Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, who said while on a familiarization tour of the Nigerian Railway Corporation as follows “in fact, I think we have a problem; most people don’t believe that the railway transport is functioning in Nigeria. I didn’t even know, until I started this tour, I never knew that the railway was functioning, it was even from his (MD’s) speech that I learnt that there are some coaches or services that go to Kano or Port Harcourt or elsewhere. So we need to make people become more aware that the narrow gauge is working, and that people can still use it to travel around that country."

Now, Honourable Minister Lai Mohammed, who do we blame for this remarkable progress in our rail sector? Let me end this letter to you with a quote from best selling author, Dr. Steve Maraboli: "It’s time to care; it’s time to take responsibility; it’s time to lead; it’s time for a change; it’s time to be true to our greatest self; it’s time to stop blaming others."

Thank you and be assured of my continued loyalty and support to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

http://www.metronaija.com/2015/12/jonathan-is-not-to-blame-reno-omokri.html

cc: lalasticlala

Fighting corruption with corruption... two wrongs can never make a right.We're watching!! God bless Nigeria

Next....

NOTED
But fuel price don drop?

Op......body language has since CHANGED to body odour

Its like the blame game will last all through this administration.
Waiting for someone to blame GEJ for his/her poor grades in school.

zulu14:
NOTED But fuel price don drop?

I tire 4 dem o both APC n PDP no gree to reduce the oil price

Woooow

shey they OCCUPIED NIGERIA in Lagos then, when Subsidy was about to be removed in 2012

unu never chi chom chin

Truth is this man doesn't know what his portfolio entails... I'm pretty sure he has no idea of the President's movement... Personally Femi Adesina is Nigeria's minister of information

Lai mohammed has always been a Liar!
Whoeva believes him is a dumb ass
And must be kept in a zoo.
Afterall who buari help?
Buhari the minister of tourism
Mtcheeeewwww

o

Change indeed.. They called Jonathan " daft and clueless".. This administration is the definition of "clueless".. Bunch of Coward's..

them sack plenty workers for my company on friday. chai see as people dey cry. wetin them family go chop? Bubu, Oshawole, Asinbanjo, pls u guys have to do something o. no work and the small one wey person get them dey sack them commot. to find job no easy. no be amrobbery them go go do so?

Wat's dis omokri sayin,he should consider y n wher e made d statement.Lai's words is very simply n direct.he was ask a quetion of which he has2 answer,do we expect him 2 lie.Oga jona is yet2 deny d fact dat his govt had oustanding debts 2 pay d marketers.wat's d fuse here?I'm nt an advocate 4 a single party,but pdp should step up thr game.if Pmb manages2 perform wit dis current price of crude,pdp is domed.n I forsee him performing

Wey Dem?

It shall not be well with lai mohammed and those who supported what he said!

A failed man is a man that is not ready to admit to his own mistakes and take blames but looking for who to put the blame on.The highest level of defamation is what we are seeing now. Imagine during Jonathan's regime,around March dis year, petrol was sold for 4huns/5huns per litre and everybody was bad mouthing and raining curses upon curses on jonthan.Today thesame is happening during Buhari's regime and sum dullard's are still blaming Jonathan 4 it.Haba! fear God o.Today getting petrol is as hard as seeing a snow in Nigeria and it goes for nothing less than 400huns and yet Buhari is the Minister for petroleum.Enough of nitwit this complains. We need solutions,not lies.I VOTED 4 CHANGE AND NOT STUPIDITY.#Nigeriawhichwayfoward#

Wait! Wait!! wait!!!

Oga Lai Mohammed, Oga Buhari and APC. Im trying not to be disrespectful here but please stop the stupid blame game, we voted you in because we know the extent of damage that was done, we voted you in because we knew things were happening that needs to change but for you to now tell us to blame Jonathan for fuel scarcity. Oga lai you crossed the border there. See If APC cant fix or mend these problems, there is no shame in stepping down.

For me i keep telling people not to judge the APC government yet until after 1 year, Cos i believe in this 1 year you should make all the mistakes you can make and learn but from your second year, if we hear blame anybody , we go occupy you as we occupied Jonathan.

So for now, me personal i am not expecting anything at all in this one year but after 365 days and you cant show me anything, well i give una benefit of the doubt

So make i dey read all this thing bks of I blame GEJ?


Mtsw
IStillBlameGEJ

Is this Reno still in the employ of PDP?

Well said Reno. Well said.

PDP is eveil.I agree. Oya do something. Isn't that why Nigeria voted them out in d first place. Stop playing opposition APC. Plz stop

The truth is Nigerias don't fvckin care who did what, we want a better country. If PdP messed things up fix it. Daz why u were hired. Soo if as a manager I hire you to fix a problem that somebody I hired b4 messed up and u come up in board meeting to yarn nonsense of how things are not working bcuz of d former employee, I will kick ur but right there.

By d way, every government inherit debt from previour regime. Obasanjo,yaradua did not pay up all d subsidy. Jonathan inherited it, paid some. Stop all d excuses already. Go to peace park n see how bobos dey vex unto say d small shikini money wey guyz for take flex dis xmas is now going into T-fare. Fix it Lai. Fix it. I don't give a shiiet who did what. Just fix it.

Jonathan is busy enjoying his peace...

Following..

Jonathan and his cohorts damaged Nigeria to an immeasurable extent no matter how much emotional your letter is it can't change the truth

APC inherit both ASSETS and LIABILITIES get back to work, if the kitchen is too hot get out pleas.

Baa comment!

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You don't mean it?