A former presidential aide, Reno Omokri, on Wednesday urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to ban all forms of sports betting in the country.
There are several sports betting sites, including SportyBet, Bet9ja, and BetKing patronized by youths in Nigeria.
A young man identified as Onoh Chukwuma reportedly committed suicide a few days ago after he lost N2.5 million to sports betting.
Omokri, who reacted to the trend on his X platform, lamented that Nigerians spend $1 billion on gambling daily.
He urged the president to ban sports betting to improve the living conditions of Nigerians and grow the naira.
The activist 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 licences 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.
“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.”
