Reno Omokri wants Nigerians to believe that truth can be reversed by convenience and erased by apology. He wants the public to forget that for years he was not a cautious commentator but a principal amplifier of some of the most damaging allegations against Bola Ahmed Tinubu — including branding and promoting the insinuation that Tinubu was a drug dealer. These were not casual remarks. They were emphatic, repeated, and framed as moral certainties meant to disqualify a man from leadership.
Today, Omokri claims he has withdrawn those statements. He says he apologised. He says court rulings have vindicated Tinubu. That argument is an insult to public intelligence.
First, withdrawal does not erase history. You do not spend years pushing grave allegations, shaping public perception, and poisoning political discourse, then wake up after power has changed hands and announce a moral reset. The damage was done when it mattered most — before the election. Anything said after victory is not courage; it is safety.
Second, the timing exposes everything. Omokri did not discover new evidence. No hidden files were unlocked. No facts emerged that were unavailable when he was making those claims. What changed was power. Tinubu won. Tinubu assumed office. Tinubu consolidated control. And suddenly, the accusations disappeared. That is not growth. That is retreat.
Third, Omokri’s reliance on court rulings is deliberately misleading. Courts ruled on electoral petitions and legal procedures. They did not conduct a criminal trial. They did not issue a historical character certificate. To present technical judgments as sweeping moral exoneration is intellectual dishonesty, plain and simple.
But the most damning point is this: Omokri was not just forgiven — he was rewarded. He was cleared and appointed as an ambassador-designate by the same administration he once portrayed as morally unfit and criminally tainted. That single fact collapses his entire defence.
Because it raises an unavoidable question: if his earlier accusations were false and reckless, why should such a man be trusted to represent Nigeria abroad? And if those accusations were sincere, why is he now comfortably serving under the very power he once demonised? Either way, integrity does not survive the contradiction.
In fact, his appointment gives credence to the belief many already held — that his commentary is transactional. Not necessarily in crude envelopes and handshakes, but in the familiar Nigerian sense: alignment in exchange for access, relevance, and rehabilitation. Today’s enemy becomes tomorrow’s benefactor, and yesterday’s “drug dealer” becomes today’s vindicated leader.
This is not an isolated incident. Omokri has a long record of amplifying misleading and alarmist narratives when it suited political moments. Claims of an ongoing “Christian genocide” were pushed with emotional certainty, despite the complexity of Nigeria’s security crisis. Speculative commentary about a sitting president’s health was circulated as political ammunition, not responsible analysis. Each time, the pattern was the same: sensation over evidence, certainty over nuance, influence over truth.
What this exposes is not ideology, but method. Absolutism when attacking. Amnesia when retreating. Moral theatre when excluded. Reconciliation when absorbed. The message changes, but the incentive never does.
This is why Omokri’s withdrawal of the “drug dealer” label is too little and far too late. Too little because he has never seriously confronted the substance of what he said or explained why it was acceptable to say it then and unacceptable now. Too late because it came only after political victory was secured and personal fortunes improved.
Nigeria’s public space is already choking under misinformation and opportunism. Those who helped pollute it cannot later demand applause for cleaning up only after they have crossed to the winning side. Influence comes with responsibility. Words carry weight. And history does not reset itself because power has shifted.
Reno Omokri’s problem is not that he changed his mind. It is that his mind appears to change only when power changes. His appointment does not cleanse his record — it exposes it. It confirms a pattern many Nigerians recognise: where principle is negotiable, truth is flexible, and conviction lasts only until proximity to power is restored.
You cannot sell certainty for years, then ask the public to accept revision without accountability. Integrity does not work that way. And history, unlike tweets, cannot be withdrawn.
Mohammed Bello Doka can be reached via [email protected]
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