Read his article below...
Recently, I had a conversation with Mohammed Ali Ndume, the Senator representing Borno South senatorial zone and who was recently suspended by the Senate.
Because of Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume's notorious history, I must confess that my mind was a bit biased against him and so when on Sunday the 8th of July 2017,he complained that Boko Haram had upped the ante of their attacks, I was a bit irritated by him because he was one of the many All Progressive Congress politicians who had praised President Muhammadu Buhari for 'defeating' Boko Haram.
I was outraged enough to release the following statement on facebook:
In
today's paper, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume who once praised President
Muhammadu Buhari for 'defeating' Boko Haram now says he is worried about
the 'worrisome' dimensions of Boko Haram attacks! In fact, Ndume says
he is 'disturbed'! I am also disturbed too. My disturbance is based on
this: How can people who have been 'defeated' now increase the tempo of
their attacks to 'worrisome' and 'disturbing' levels Senator? You see
sir, lies have an expiry date and the lies you told against Goodluck
Jonathan will continue to 'worry' and 'disturb' you!
Even though I tagged Senator Ndume in the post, I never expected that he would respond, but respond he did as follows:
I
really thought of not responding to your comments but the fact the you
remain one of the few beneficiaries of GEJ admin that still stand by
him. He was an innocent weak President that most of the people around
him exploited for their personal interest.
Even
though the response above is not completely positive, it was however
not the type of response I would have expected from Ndume.
I
have had a number of exchanges with many an APC politician and all too
often these exchanges have been filled with vitriol coming from them and
so this was a 'breath of fresh air' (if I may be excused that play on
words).
And so I responded to him as follows:
Mohammed
Ali Ndume What you said about Goodluck Jonathan may or may not be true,
but what I said about you IS true. You praised Muhammadu Buhari for
defeating Boko Haram. I can give you the date when you said it. And in
today's papers you are lamenting about Boko Haram attacks. So Senator,
let us stick with these facts. If I have lied, please feel free to
expose me.
To which the suspended Senator in turn responded as follows:
What
you said my brother Reno is true. I praised and still praise PMB for
defeating BH and my concern for the recent development is not out of
place. GEJ misused the opportunity given to Nigerian minorities which I
am one. This is a fact that nobody can deny.
I
was so disarmed by the Senator's conviviality (to me, if not to former
President Jonathan) even though I disagreed with his conclusions on my
former boss that I went on to say the following:
Mohammed
Ali Ndume I praise you for telling the truth. I respect you for that
and there is no need for us to go at each other. Obviously, Boko Haram
was not defeated when President Muhammadu Buhari said it was. We pray that the deaths of your innocent constituents will end soon. Forgive me if I have wronged you.
To which Senator Ndume responded thus:
Reno
Omokri, I respect you for standing by GEJ. So many beneficiaries have
since abandoned him. I urge you to continue doing that. Because that is a
rare quality of a good man. May Allah bring peace, equity, unity and
good governance to our beloved country.
At this point, all I could respond with was an 'Amin' (amen in Arabic)!
I
must say that my interaction with Senator Ndume so touched me and It
made me go from dealing with him from a position of cynicism to
developing almost a soft spot for him.
Why
a soft spot? Because most Nigerian politicians are not humble enough to
admit when and where they are wrong and for the Senator to do that
shows a level of maturity that I find endearing. I daresay that others
may also find it endearing as I did.
There
are many uses for politics, but to my mind, the very best use of the
vocation is to turn ones enemies into ones friends and whatever may be
said about Senator Ndume, he does have that ability.
Now
that we have identified one person who had this quality in the APC, I
must appeal to him to teach it to President Muhammadu Buhari because the
greatest threat to the continued existence of Nigeria as one united
indivisible country is not Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB, rather it is the
97% versus 5% mentality of the President.
Not
only does that mentality prove that our President could never have
passed mathematics (that is even if he truly has the certificate that we
have only heard about but not seen), it only shows that the President
is a ruler and not a leader.
Let
me explain the difference between a ruler and a leader. A ruler is a
person in authority because of an office he/she holds and who maintains
himself in that office by catering to the needs of his/her loyalists.
A
leader on the other hand is a person in authority because of his or her
or character traits which others find attractive and thus follow him as
a result and
who continues to expand his or her influence and authority by catering
to the needs of everyone in his or her team or sphere of influence.
President
Buhari fits into the former which is why he would use a sectional
language to address a national holiday. It is also the reason why he was
not able to bring himself to pay a state visit to those states where he
lost in the 2015 elections.
Ask
yourself which state President Muhammadu Buhari has visited in the
Southeast and South south since he assumed office as President on May
29, 2015.
The
answer is nought, nil, nada, nothing, zero, zilch and zip. The same
President Muhammadu Buhari who has visited multiple foreign countries
has not found it within himself to even visit these opposition states!
In
fact, those states could be forgiven if they thought they were the
'Dogs and Baboons' famously referenced by the President in 2012 because
since Buhari rose to power, they have been soaked in blood by Fulani
herdsmen with little or nothing done for them by the same President who
once complained that the fight against Boko Haram was anti North (his
words not mine).
The
husband talks of Dog and Baboon, the wife talks of Hyenas and Jackals.
Are we sure these people still see Nigerians as human beings?
I
have been praying for the President Muhammadu Buhari. I have asked
nothing from him, neither do I need anything from the First Family. What
I do want from them is to address us as human beings not as sundry wild
animals that rank low on the food chain!
Nigeria
is facing unprecedented floods with no solution, secession threats,
quit notices, hyperinflation, Naira losing value and at this critical
time the First Family chooses to reference us with Animal innuendo!
How
did we go from 'my ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian' to
being called Dogs, Baboons, Hyenas and Jackals? How did this happen?
It
is now I believe that Fela Kuti was a prophet of sorts (God can speak
through anybody). Twenty eight years ago he warned us by singing 'Many
leaders as you see them, na different disguise them dey o, animal in
human skin!'
And
what a damp squib acting President Yemi Osinbajo's visit to London to
see his boss turned out to be. We were expecting some direction from
that visit, some inkling of a solution to the many pressing domestic
problems that this administration has inflicted on us, but the long
suffering and well meaning acting President could only mouth at the
usual platitudes to us about the president 'recovering fast' and is
expected to to 'return soon'!
Can
you blame the good man? Hedged in as he is by the 'cabal' and their lap
dogs who have been flying a kite that 'the next in line is not always
the next king'!
Meaningless platitudes!
If
the President is indeed 'recovering fast' how come the acting President
could not pose for pictures with his boss for the benefit of Nigerians?
And how come the Presidency's outlets released old pictures of the
First Lady and Kayode Fayemi in winter wears with the President to try
and fool the Nigerian public?
I
just came back from a two week working visit to London and Aberdeen and
the weather in the U.K. does not support the type of outfits we saw in
those pictures!
I
pray for President Muhammadu Buhari, but do you know how many poor and
sick Nigerians can be treated with the thousands of pounds it cost to
keep his Presidential jet at London Stansted Airport in the U.K. daily?
Today,
hundreds of poor Nigerians will starve to death. They could have been
rescued with a fraction of that money. Today hundreds of women will die
in child birth. They could have gone to a clinic and their lives saved
with a fraction of that money. Today, hundreds of infants will die of
malnutrition. Only a percentage of that money could have saved them. My
question to you is who is praying for them?
So
in conclusion, my advice to the President is the same advice that
former President Olusegun Obasanjo gave to the nation on Wednesday
January 20, 2010.
On that day, former President Obasanjo said:
"If
you take up an appointment, or a job, elected, appointed or whatever
and then your health starts failing you, and you will not be able to
satisfy yourself and the people you are supposed to serve, then, there
is a part of honour and a part of morality and if you don't do that, I
do not need to say more than that."
What more can I add to that than to say who the cap fits, let him wear it!
And
let me end by saying that it is so disappointing that Tony Blair would
agree to go to a Kaduna state where at least 347 Shiite men, women,
children and infants were slaughtered without anyone being held liable!
I
know Tony Blair professes to be a Christian. How Christian is it to
affirm a government in whose sphere this mass murder happened? This is
not counting the killings that were ongoing in Southern Kaduna earlier
this year. I assume The Tony Blair Faith Foundation would have been paid
for this visit to Kaduna state, but money is not everything. Mr. Tony
Blair should remember what our Lord said in Mark 8:36 "what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
Apparently, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume has another pupil in Mr. Blair.
Reno's Nuggets
You
eat three times a day in order to be physically healthy. Won't it make
sense to also have three streams of income so you can be financially
healthy? And if men who did not graduate university founded Apple,
Microsoft and Facebook, you have no excuse for failure as a graduate.
Finally, if you're lazy and like to sleep a lot, then make sure you have
a business that still makes you money even when you are sleeping.
Between the time you slept and woke up, Mark Zuckerberg made over two
million dollars #RenosNuggets
Reno
Omokri is a Christian TV talk show host and founder of the Mind of
Christ Christian Center and the Helen and Bemigho Sanctuary for orphans.
He is the author of the worldwide amazon bestseller Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years: Chibok, 2015 and Other Conspiracies and three books, Shunpiking: No Shortcuts to God, Why Jesus Wept and Apples of Gold: A Book of Godly Wisdom
Reno
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