Nigeria’s ambassador-designate to Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua, Reno Omokri, has rejected former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s claim that President Bola Tinubu is 90 years old.
Omokri responded to the claim in a Facebook post on Friday, where he shared a photograph of Tinubu with media entrepreneur and African Democratic Congress (ADC) chieftain Dele Momodu, said to have been taken in London in 1996.
Using the photograph to question Atiku’s assertion, Omokri argued that Tinubu did not appear to be 60 years old at the time, which he said would have been the case if the President were 90 in 2026.
Atiku, the ADC presidential candidate, had made the claim during an interview with the BBC broadcast on Friday, saying he had evidence to support Tinubu’s alleged age and would present it 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.”
Reacting, Omokri said the 1996 photograph raised questions about the former Vice-President’s claim, particularly because Momodu appeared alongside Tinubu.
“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,” Omokri 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?”
Omokri also referred to the late Fuji musician Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, who was born in 1948, claiming that the musician described Tinubu as his younger brother in one of his songs while Tinubu and Momodu danced.
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He further criticised Momodu for not publicly challenging what he described as attempts to “age-shame” 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?”
The ambassador-designate urged political actors to focus their campaigns on issues affecting Nigerians and propose solutions to the country’s challenges ahead of the 2027 elections.
He argued that political discussions should not be reduced to personal attacks over age.
Omokri 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 controversy comes amid renewed political debate over Tinubu’s age, with supporters and opponents of the President offering competing claims about his date of birth.
The All Progressives Congress (APC), in Tinubu’s biography published on its website, gives his date of birth as March 29, 1952. Based on that date, Tinubu is 74 years old in 2026.