6th March, 2024
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
A former presidential spokesman, Reno Omokri has attacked Arise TV host, Dr. Reuben Abati for asking what the son of the president, Seyi Tinubu does for a living.
He said Abati asking such question on air put a question mark on his status as a journalist.
Abati was reacting to Seyi following his father to Qatar for a business summit.
Abati said: “May we begin to ask what the President’s children do for a living? I mean, by the time I was their age I was doing something concrete. I got a PhD at 24. I wasn’t depending on any father. People must get to a stage in their lives when they hold themselves together.
“I don’t want adults behaving like invalids, hanging around just because your father is in a position. All these children of privileged people overdo it…and these are boys who would probably have wives at home. Some of these girls, what they go through is very embarrassing. You can’t have a husband that is just hanging around.”
Reacting to Abati’s comment, Omokri said if he were the President of Nigeria at this time when the country is bitterly divided as a result of the Nigerian Elections 2023 and the removal of fuel subsidy, as well as the flotation of the Naira, he would not take his children on an official business trip overseas.
“The only reason I would not do that is because the optics would look bad, and I would be playing into the hands of my political opponents and hostile media, which have taken a business decision to oppose my administration to appease their base in preparation for the next election,” he said.
According to Omokri, “having said that, legally, there is nothing wrong with it. Please fact-check me: As Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher took her son, Mark Thatcher, to overseas UK Business summits. Sir Mark Thatcher is a businessman, as is Seyi Tinubu. Also, fact-check me: President Obasanjo similarly took his son, Gbenga, on a business summit while he was President. Gbenga is also a legitimate businessman.”
Omokri added that the current U.S. President, Joe Biden, took his son, Hunter Biden, on a business summit in China while he was vice President and that former President Trump even made his daughter and her husband his advisers, who frequently travelled with him to business and political summits.
“The trip to Qatar was publicly billed as a business summit, for which Nigerian businesses were meant to collaborate with Qatari companies. In fact, some critics even mocked the Tinubu administration when a letter leaked that the “Business Summit” aspect of the trip had been cancelled. Which turned out to be a lie.
“I was surprised that one journalist today asked on live TV what Seyi Tinubu does for a living. I may or may not like Seyi Tinubu. That journalist himself may or may not like Seyi Tinubu. But to ask what Seyi Tinubu does puts a question mark on your status as a journalist. This is a young man who is involved in multiple known businesses.
“And to the President’s credit, he very publicly kicked Seyi Tinubu out of a Federal Executive Council meeting and warned him never to attend again, because that was not a business summit. That was a government meeting.
“Other than the fact that Nigeria is currently very divided, and the President should have avoided fire, being that he is covered in petrol, what he did is not wrong at all. You may now insult me, since you cannot fault me on the facts,” Omokri added.