Former presidential aide Reno Omokri has rubbished claims that the late Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu was once the richest man in Nigeria and that Queen Elizabeth rode in his car when she visited Nigeria.

He said he had to debunk the claims after a number of his followers shared fallacious information that they say they got from a video by veteran actor Mr. Peter Edochie, who made several claims about Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu.

"With the advent of AI, it is possible that the person I saw making those claims is not really Mr. Edochie but a deep fake AI,' Omokri said.

"However, and I say this respectfully, not spitefully, Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu was never the richest man in Africa. He was not even the wealthiest man in Nigeria at any point in time."

He stated that the suspected AI video also contained another fallacious claim that Sir Louis was a billionaire. "No, he was not. And it was not just him. There was no billionaire in Nigeria for the first forty years of our existence as an independent nation," he said.

He further stated, "Throughout the 1960s, Nigeria's GDP was between $4.2 billion in 1960 and $6.6 billion in 1969. A billionaire at that point would have owned one-quarter of Nigeria's wealth.

"Yet another historically inaccurate claim made by the person purporting to be Mr. Edochie, who again might be an A.I., and others before him, is that Queen Elizabeth II rode in Sir Louis's Rolls-Royce during her 1956 visit to Nigeria.

"Actually, that is a lie, and if you investigate the claim on Google or any other AI, that lie has been so embedded in popular culture that even Google's AI believes it. You will also find many sources, all from social media, backing the claim. They are all lies.

"Now, I will attach a photo of the Queen in the Rolls-Royce from 1956. Notice that the crowd around her are dressed like Northern Nigerian royals and elite.

"That is because the car belonged not to Sir Louis but to the then Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi I (the grandfather of Sanusi Lamido). It was a 1952 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith.

"And on Tuesday, November 6, 2018, Emir Sanusi used that same car to receive the then Prince Charles (now King Charles III) when he visited Kano.

"You can watch a video by the British newspaper, The Daily Mail, acknowledging that this was the same car used in 1956 for Queen Elizabeth II and belonged to Emir Sanusi's grandfather. Here is a link to the video https://dailymail.co.uk/video/femail/video-1798014/Video-Emir-Kano-arrives-greet-Charles-Rolls-Royce-used-Queen.html?page=

"I have also taken the liberty of attaching the 2018 photo with the 1956 one. After this visit, the car was repainted in green and white because Emir Muhammadu Sanusi I was, for a brief period, the Acting Governor of Northern Nigeria in 1957.

"It is possible that the British chose him for that honour as a reward for granting the Queen his automobile.

"Historically, wealth in the area now known as Nigeria usually comes from the desert or the water. Caravans brought goods for trading via the desert, and ships brought commodities for commerce through the ports. That is why, in the foreseeable future, Lagos, Kano, and the coastal South-South will be the wealthiest places in Nigeria and produce the most affluent people.

"For example, Sanusi Dantata, the son of Alhaji Alhassan Dantata, was acknowledged by Time Magazine as the wealthiest person in Nigeria by the 1960s. This documentary evidence contradicts the claims made by the fellow purporting to be Mr. Edochie. You may want to read it here yourself https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,842145,00.html

"His father, Alhassan Dantata, was also the wealthiest man in West Africa before he passed away.

"Alhassan Dantata is the great-grandfather of Aliko Dangote, currently the wealthiest Black person alive.

"The thing is that because the Lukumi Yoruba have a conservative culture and the North has a conservative religion, which makes both groups exhibit modesty about their acquisitions, some people have gotten the wrong idea about wealth.

"Sir Louis Odumegwu-Ojukwu was never the wealthiest man in Nigeria or Africa, as claimed by the person in the video, who, in the light of A.I., may or may not be Mr. Edochie."

ASA