Reno Omokri, former aide to Nigeria ex-president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan said both Northern Christians and Moslems are always taught to be modest in their way of life, even in the face of remarkable achievements.
The socio-political critic on Saturday made this comment via his official Twitter account, following a demeaning remark by one Facebook user, Onyekachi Okafor that the candidates from the Southern parts of Nigeria who sat the Joint Admission Matriculation Board, JAMB, examinations have been celebrating their excellent scores online while their Northern counterparts have been quiet, possibly due to poor performance.
Okafor stated, “This one na only people from Southern Nigerian dey celebrate their Jamb scores, is like Northerners their own look like decimal point.”
Omokri, in his statement, however cautioned the lady not to use her lifestyle to judge Northerners, adding that northerners don’t build their achievements on showoff unlike their fellow compatriots from the Southern parts of the country.
He furthered that if not for Forbes that threw Aliko Dangote into global limelight through its ranking, business mogul’s modest lifestyle would have kept him away from global attention.
Omokri said, “A lot of Southerners do not understand the North. Both Northern Christians and Muslims are guided by conservative religions and cultures, which teach them to be modest from an early age. Google it. Northerners have scored the highest in both JAMB and WAEC/NECO, but they tend to be humble even in victory.
“In 2018, the highest scorer in JAMB’s UTME was a young man named Galadima from Borno. He scored 364. Interestingly, he did not post his score on social media. He was outed by the press.
“Last year (2022), a girl from Sokoto, named Mariam scored the highest result in the NECO exams. And she remained camera-shy.
“If not that Forbes exposed him, I doubt that many Nigerians would have known that Aliko Dangote is the richest Black person on Earth. Such is their modesty. But if he were to come from elsewhere and have even 1% of his current wealth, he would have declared himself King of Money.
“Do not use your lifestyle to judge Northerners. In birth, life, and death, they tend to be modest. The showoff life is not for them.
“That sort of lifestyle has its benefits. It also has its drawbacks. Too often, it leads to unhealthy rivalry, which pushes youths to go into crime and perversion to get money so that they can also show off, so that people will not come on social media and laugh at them for not boasting of their achievements like their peers,” Omokri concluded.
