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Addressing Dele Momodu's Latest Lies Against President Tinubu
Dear Dele Momodu,
Thank you for your commentary, but I will not allow you to get away with such blatant untruths. Instead of throwing accusations that "Tinubu acolytes came on air to jubilate, and even conspired to insult former President Olusegun Obasanjo, by saying he’ll be very jealous of the reception accorded President Tinubu at Windsor Castle, by King Charles III", I will challenge you to name such "acolytes."
And I note with dismay your attempts to set up President Tinubu against President Obasanjo, a man I respect and who has included my work in his latest book, “The Conflict Resolution Strategies of President Olusegun Obasanjo GCFR”.
You unnecessarily compared the official visit by Queen Elizabeth II to Nigeria for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2003 during the Obasanjo administration with the State Visit accorded to President Tinubu by King Charles III between March 18-29, 2026.
First of all, the comparison is needless. However, since you chose to make this unnecessary contrast, please be aware that a State Visit, where a Head of State of a host nation invites his counterpart in another nation for a ceremonial visit, and officially heads the hosting party, is the highest diplomatic honour that any country can bestow on the President or Head of State of another nation.
Please fact-check me: Every other diplomatic event, including a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, falls below a State Visit.
For your information, since you are obviously unaware, a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is not a State Visit. In diplomatic parlance, CHOGMs are classified as 'Official Visits' and rank below State Visits.
You may want to independently research the differences between the two.
Then you claimed that "Under OBASANJO, Nigeria’s external debts were written off. But today, the debts have more than quadrupled."
Actually, the above statement is dishonest, and I debunked it on Channels Television when Peter Obi made similar comments.
Nigeria's debts have not "quadrupled" under President Tinubu. Actually, they have reduced.
President Tinubu inherited a huge debt burden of $113 billion, and has reduced it to $103.9 billion, which may be why The Economist Magazine reported last month that Nigeria's "golden years" are likely to return due to President Tinubu's reforms. The IMF listed Nigeria as the sixth-largest contributor to global GDP growth in 2025, a fact celebrated by Elon Musk, the world's richest man.
Instead of relying on Peter Obi, another notorious disseminator of false statistics, I urge you to consult the Debt Management Office's website, http://dmo.gov.ng, for accurate information on Nigeria's indebtedness.
Please note that more than 90% of Nigeria's current debt was incurred by previous governments, and that President Tinubu is repaying loans at a faster rate than his last four predecessors.
What Peter Obi did, which you have now parroted, is to take the figure of $103 billion and convert it into Naira at today's rates, giving the false impression that Nigeria's debt has quadrupled.
It is patently dishonest to take loans drawn in US Dollars by past administrations and then convert them to Naira after the flotation of the nation's currency, to mislead unwary citizens into believing that their President is financially profligate.
Dear Dele, I urge you, as the journalist you claim to be, to stick to the facts. And if you are unable to stick to facts, then please kindly stop referring to yourself as a journalist.
Your current behaviour reflects the conduct of a gossip columnist, rather than a journalist.
Thanks again, and may God bless you.
Reno Omokri
Ambassador Designate to Mexico. Gospeller. Deep Thinker. #TableShaker . #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. Hodophile. Hollywood Magazine Humanitarian of the Year, 2019.
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