Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s social media whizkid, Reno Omokri may have lost out in the Aso Rock power configuration with his replacement by Obi Asika as the new Special Assistant, social media.
Omokri’s removal, sources say, may not be unconnected with the strings of controversies surrounding the person of Omokri and particularly, a desperate attempt by President Goodluck Jonathan to present a more humane outlook as his electoral fortunes slip and his popularity plummets.
Asika, one of the co-organizers of “Social Media Week” in Lagos is perceived to be a “serious personality, refined and self-controlled.”
Since he took over the job as Jonathan’s social media strategist, Omokri had courted strings of controversies that have had debilitating consequences on the reputation of President Jonathan and significantly reduced his electoral value in the build up to the forthcoming presidential election.
Last year, Omokri, using a pseudonymn “Wendell Simlin” was caught by tech-savvy Nigerian social media activists for been the brain behind report circulated on the Internet linking former Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, as the sponsor of the terror group Boko Haram.
Few weeks ago, a California-based woman, Deborah Campbell, who was once married to a relative of Omokri’s, alleged that the presidential aide had stolen her son’s identity to engage in the circulation of fraudulent news that smeared Sanusi, now the Emir of Kano, the allegation which Omokri never denied.
Just last week, Omokri was also accused of leading policemen to burgle a house in Warri, Delta State that belonged to his late mother. The occupants of the house, including Alex Oyoro, a well known PDP political figure in Delta State, alleged that Omokri had led a group of thugs and mobile police officers who broke into the property and stole N25 million in cash.
The money, according to Oyoro, was meant for Jonathan’s re-election campaign.
Omokri however denied being physically present at the scene of the burglary, claiming that he was at his desk in Abuja and also doing some pastoral work at the time of the reported burglary.
Apart from his dubious activities and cantankerous personality, Omokri has also committed a series of blunders that cast Jonathan’s campaign in bad light.
He organized two online polls that eventually showed that President Jonathan would lose the 2015 elections to the opposition APC presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, by a wide margin.
Several sources claimed that Omokri over shot his bounds after he engineered a poll on Twitter where informal posts showed that Jonathan’s electoral prospects had become wretched. “That ill-advised Twitter poll backfired and caused embarrassment to President,” said a source close to the Jonathan campaign.
Asika is the founder of Dragon Africa, Chairman, Outsource Media, content & communications and founder of Storm 360, one of West Africa’s leading entertainment companies.