Mixed reactions have continued to trail online comment credited to a former aide of President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr. Reno Omokri, over his call for the people of the South East region of Nigeria to stop the increasing habit of begging.

According to the former presidential aide, instead of begging, the Igbo should use their God-given talents to earn their living.
Omokri had on Thursday, through one of the social media platforms, TwitterNG, told the south east people that Coronavirus lockdown condition was not enough to make them beg.

According to him, “If you are from the SE, I urge you to ask your elders about this: Igbos used to beat fellow Igbos who begged. Begging is never part of Igbo culture. Don’t allow conditions make you lose ancient virtues that made your race the pride of Black Africa.

“If you are from the SE, this #CoronaVirus lockdown condition is not enough to make you beg. After the civil war in 1970, Igbos were poor. But what shocked the world was that they did not beg. Instead, they worked and traded their way out of poverty.”

However, Omokri’s statement generated a lot of reactions from some online users. While some agreed with, and applauded him for standing on the side of truth, others berated him for an unwarranted attack on the Igbo people.

Reacting, @ifywc and @VeronicaNelly7 berated Omokri saying that an Igbo name was begging online does not make south east people beggers. “True… but because someone with an Igbo name is begging doesn’t mean south easterners are beggers.” According to @VeronicaNelly7,

“That any Igbo man or lady drop his or her details doesn’t mean we are begging. Just passing out time due to the lockdown. Begging is not in our DNA”

On his part, @SUGobimba was utterly displeased with Omokri’s unsolicited advice and asked him to leave people alone if he could not assist them. “If you want to help people online just help them or tell them you can’t help not to insult people from south east region.”

Reacting in the same vein, @changes_itz was surprised that Omokri could single out south east alone even when the situation was affecting everybody. “I don’t get it, you only work your way if there is an opportunity but when world economy is on break, I don’t see how that is possible when everyone is only worried about survival”
@ogechi042 and @Obokohwoisrael took a jab at him describing his ‘so called’ giveaway as not truly free.

“Even your so called give away is not free, You people task to accomplish which is to follow your paddy apostle on Twitter. So, those people you are insulting are just hustling. I think it’s wise to say that they are working to get paid but instead of paying them, you are insulting them”, @ogechi042 tweeted.

“Oga, the insult you dish out to Nigerians ever since you started tasking them to follow other handles and making retweets just for 30$ or less is vile”, @Obokohwoisrael added.

Meanwhile, @jerryrobben was of the opinion that Mr Omokri was the one encouraging begging. He said: “…Coming from someone that does auditioning before giving out money. If you really want to make sense, stop encouraging people to beg online.”

Source:- Vanguardngr