Former aide to Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan has urged Africans, especially Nigerians, to stop bearing European names but should, instead, bear and be proud of their African names.

Reno Omokri, a former aide to Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan has urged Africans, especially Nigerians, to stop bearing European names but should, instead, bear and be proud of their African names.

According to him, “Neither my children nor I have any European names. We all proudly have ONLY African names (Reno is Itsekiri). The attitude Africans ought to have is that neither they nor their children should bear Western or non African names since Europeans and non Africans don’t bear African names. And don’t believe the myth that they will lose opportunities due to African sounding names. America elected a man named Barack Hussein Obama. It does not get more ethnic than that. Streatham in the UK elected a Member of Parliament called Chuka Umunna”.

Reno continued to say, "also don’t be fooled by theories that Westerners will never be able to pronounce African names. Is your name more complicated than Schwarzenegger or Xiaoping? If they could pronounce those names, they can pronounce yours. If they can’t pronounce it, it is because they don’t want to!”