Reno Omokri, Nigeria’s ambassador to Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua, has dismissed former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s claim that President Bola Tinubu is 90 years old.
In a Facebook post on
Friday, Omokri shared a 1996 photograph of Tinubu and Dele Momodu, chieftain of
the African Democratic Congress (ADC), arguing that the picture raised
questions about Atiku’s claim.
He said there was no way Tinubu could be 90 years old in
2026, arguing that the president did not appear to be 60 in the photograph,
which according to him, was taken in 1996.
In an interview with the BBC aired on Friday, Atiku, the ADC
presidential candidate, had
claimed that he had evidence that Tinubu is 90 years old and would
present the records in court.
“I have a president who is 90 years old now, and who is
sick. I am healthy; I am strong. So why would I not make my services available
to my fellow countrymen?” Atiku asked.
“I have evidence that he is [90], and I will present it in
court.”
However, Omokri argued that if Tinubu were truly 90 years
old, as Atiku claimed, Momodu, who stood beside him in the 1996 photograph,
must be in his 80s.
“This is a photo of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Dele
Momodu taken in London in 1996. If Asiwaju is indeed 90 years old, as recently
alleged, then Dele Momodu must be in his eighties,” the ambassador wrote.
“Look at the photo yourself. I have not altered it in any
way. Dele Momodu is alive to testify to the authenticity of this photograph and
the date and place where it was taken.
“Search your conscience and answer this question. Does His
Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, President and Commander-in-Chief of the
Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, look like a sixty-year-old in
this photo?
“If Asiwaju is indeed ninety years of age, then he would
have been sixty when this photo was taken exactly thirty years ago. I urge
objective Nigerians and citizens of the world to again look at this photo. Does
the gentleman on the right look sixty? Does he even look fifty?”
‘AGE-SHAMING NOT IDEAL DEBATE’
The envoy, who challenged Nigerians to fact-check his claim,
said Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, the late Fuji musician born in 1948, referred to
Tinubu as his younger brother in a song played while the president and Momodu
danced.
Omokri noted that Barrister would have been 78 years old
this year if he were alive.
The ambassador also faulted Momodu for not speaking out
against what he described as the “age-shaming” of Tinubu.
“I remind Dele Momodu that, by his own admission, Asiwaju
was good to him when he was in exile from the Abacha regime. Mr Momodu is free
to support whichever candidate he chooses,” Omokri said.
“But will it be morally acceptable for Dele Momodu to watch
idly by as a man who was once his benefactor, and who he once referred to as
his friend, is being accused of being a nonagenarian suffering from ill
health?”
He added that politicians can raise the bar for the upcoming
election by throwing up issues germane to the people and brainstorming ideas to
resolve the challenges plaguing the polity.
Omokri, however, said “to age-shame people with ages that
are not even theirs is to reduce the discussion about who governs Nigeria to an
unbecoming level”.
The development comes amid growing controversy in the
political space over Tinubu’s age, with opposition figures and supporters of
the president frequently trading claims over his date of birth.
In Tinubu’s biography publisjed on its website,
the All Progressives Congress (APC) lists the president’s date of birth as
March 29, 1952, which means he is 74 years old in 2026.
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