Supposed Special Assistant to the President on New Media, assumed Pastor Reno Omokri yesterday went down the path that he has now become known for on social media; the childish and thoughtless path, when he tweeted, “The new spelling of lie is Lai,” in apparent reference to the interim Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives’ Congress, Alh. Lai Mohammed who many regard as a thorn in the side of the Jonathan regime. Pastor Mr. Reno Omokri’s tweet did not go without fire from fellow twitter users. One of the responders @MrEnclave (Olumuyiwa Olumide) tweeted back at Mr. Omokri saying, “And the new spelling of mockery is Omokri.” Others were less subtle as words like “He-goat” were used in describing his name.

Twitter users like Editi Effiong @EditiEffiong expressed regret that national debate had gone down the path of abuses and name-calling. Mr. Effiong, of Anakle tweeted, “So we’re down to insulting people’s ames. What an absolute shame.” He also went ahead to tweet, “How is ‘Omokri means ‘he-goat’ elevating the conversation? Later, we’ll say the conversation should be issues based.”

Mr. Omokri once tweeted that northerners in Nigeria were “parasites” but he later claimed his account was hacked after coming under ferocious attack from Nigeria’s unforgiving Twittersphere. He is yet to make the same claim on this particular gaffe even though some twitter users refused to believe his account wasn’t hacked to release such a tweet. @oged07  tweeted “His account was clearly hacked. Such unprofessionalism. SMH.” (SMH means Shaking My Head).

No apologies or claims of a hacked account have been made but in a country where impunity is the norm, many will not be expecting an apology soon.