Social media influencer, Reno Omokri, has called on President Bola Tinubu to ban sports betting apps in the country, as they are draining the nation’s wealth and destroying the future of its youth.
Omokri, who is known for his outspoken views on social and political issues, made this appeal in a series of tweets on Wednesday. He argued that sports betting apps are not only addictive and harmful, but also detrimental to the value of the Naira and the economic well-being of Nigerians.
According to Omokri, who cited the National Lottery Trust Fund, Nigerians spend a staggering $1 billion on gambling every day.
He made this known in a post on X on Wednesday.
He wrote, “President Tinubu can immediately improve the economic conditions of most Nigerians and make the Naira grow by issuing an Executive Order authorising the Nigerian Communications Commission to ban sports betting apps from the App Store of any GSM Internet Service Provider in Nigeria and revoking the licenses of any physical sports betting operators in Nigeria. It makes better sense than Buhari’s draconian #TwitterBan.
“There is such an epidemic of gambling in Nigeria and it is destroying Nigerian youths. $1 billion is spent on gambling daily in Nigeria, according to the National Lottery Trust Fund. Please fact-check me. The average Nigerian spends $15 daily on sports betting and other types of gambling, with the vast majority of that amount leaving our economy and going to places like Russia, South Africa, and Europe. The Naira can never sustain its rally under such circumstances.
“This is scary. How much is our GDP that we are pissing it away like that? More money is leaving Nigeria through gambling than is coming in. Buhari was thoroughly useless in that he was an anti-intellectual who was led by the nose by his former recharge card seller turned overnight billionaire nephew, Tunde Sabiu. But Tinubu is an accountant. He must know that this parasitic economic sabotage will destroy Nigeria if left unchecked.
“A lot of the petty crime in Nigeria is caused by youths seeking money, by any means, to fund their gambling habit. It would be irresponsible for a first-class accountant like Tinubu not to act on such a matter as threatening to our national security as this gambling epidemic.”