By: Ifeanyi Izeze
Ordinarily, it would have been a very welcomed development that The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to file another Joint Status Report (JSR) by August 7, 2025, to update the Court on the release schedule for the ‘unredacted’ records related to a 1993 heroin trafficking case, which named Bola Tinubu as a central figure in Chicago’s heroin trade, but for the mere fact that Nigeria and Nigerians are no longer interested in whatever the US Government decides to do with the files/records.
The question to ask is: who is actually bringing up this Tinibu’s heroin issue again at this time? It’s obvious that whoever it is may be mischievously trying to tie it to Nigeria’s 2027 electioneering which campaigns have already kick-started.
As reported by Parallel Facts News. Com on its July 16 edition., Judge Beryl A. Howell made the order in response to a JSR filed by the FBI and DEA on June 30, where both agencies claimed that they needed until December 1, 2025 to carry out the requested searches and start producing the documents without the existing redactions.
Is it not clear that this resurrected threat to release or not to release the “unredacted” records of President Tinubu’s over 31 years drug case files may be a decoy and well-orchestrated ploy to distract Nigerians from pinning down their President to deliver the dividends of democracy he promised in his 2023 electioneering campaign as Nigerians are yet to see any good deed of this government. All ordinary Nigerians see is hardship, hardship everywhere!
When we direly needed that information to help the country decide on the integrity and the person of the then candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the same US authourities refused to release it on the ground that it would “jeopardise the American interests.”
So what has changed between then and now that we are beginning again to hear about the ‘unredacted’ files being released? Is it now that the release of such information is no longer going to jeopardise the US Government interests?
As said by the Nigerian journalist David Hundeyin in his twitter/X handle: “Effectively, what the FBI, CIA and DEA are saying is that the Nigerian president could be a human source who might have furnished information to the CIA confident that the agency will do everything in its power to prevent the public disclosure of their level of cooperation.”
We (as Nigerians) have taken the man Bola Ahmed Tinubu as our president and we will live with him as he is. Nigerians have forgiven him of all the alleged offences he might have committed as a young man.
Let’s look at it: If the US even releases the ‘unredacted’ records now on the alleged drug offences perpetrated by President Tinubu over 31 years ago, of what use will that be for Nigeria and Nigerians at this moment?
As a nation we have passed that stage with the man. Are we now going to say that the man who has been ruling us since 2023 is now no longer qualified to be on the seat as the President of the Federal Republic? That’s an absolute impossibility even under the American democratic practices.
At best, the drugs records issue is more now like a blackmail bait that is being dangled to get Tinubu back on track as it seems he is trying to renegade on the agenda given to him by the West.
We are now more aware that the Western covert practice is that the West will always support and install politicians/leaders who they can use to serve the western interests rather than their peoples. The practice by these evil West has usually been to find the most corrupt, the most easily manipulated, the ones who craves wealth and status more than progress of their nations. Offer them power in exchange for loyalty.
It would be recalled that the initial Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit demanding the public release of the records was instituted in 2023 by Plainsite.org founder Aaron Greenspan with assistance from West Africa Weekly Editor-in-Chief David Hundeyin following the publication of West Africa Weekly’s comprehensive investigation into Bola Tinubu’s background.
While the files were partially released in 5 batches between September 2023 and January 2024, all direct mentions of Tinubu and his family were redacted, which led Greenspan to challenge the redactions in court.
The FBI and DEA unsuccessfully argued that the redactions were in the best interests of US national security and that Nigerians were not entitled to have access to such information about Nigeria’s president. Subsequently in May 2025, Judge Howell delivered a summary judgement ordering the immediate removal of the redactions.
The agencies told a US District Court in Columbia that they could not fully disclose Tinubu’s level of cooperation with the CIA. The DEA stated that Nigerians did not have a right to know what Tinubu was up to.
Similarly, the DEA added, “We oppose full, ‘unredacted’ disclosure of the DEA’s Bola Tinubu heroin trafficking investigation records because we believe that while Nigerians have a right to be informed about what their government is up to, they do not have a right to know what their president is up to.”
The FBI, CIA, and DEA relied on US FOIA exemptions to refuse to provide information on the existence of Tinubu’s records. Both the FBI and DEA relied on FOIA exemptions 6 and 7, while the CIA relied on exemptions 1 and 3.
Exemption 1 of the FOIA relates to the preservation of national security, while Exemption 3 allows the government to withhold records that are “specifically exempted from disclosure” by statutes other than FOIA.
Monday’s publication read, “In such cases, ‘an agency can issue a Glomar response, refusing to confirm or deny its possession of responsive documents.’ A Glomar response is a judicially created way for federal agencies to refuse to confirm or deny the existence of requested records in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
As said by the US Authourities, “the indiscretion of one source in a chain of intelligence sources can damage an entire spectrum of sources. As such, confirming or denying the existence of records on a particular foreign national, like Tinubu, reasonably could be expected to cause damage to U.S. national security by indicating whether or not the CIA maintained any human intelligence sources related to Tinubu, and identifying any access or lack of access any such sources had to intelligence concerning him.”
By refusing to confirm or deny any involvement with Tinubu, all three agencies have left the questions unanswered. One may imply from the responses that he is or is not involved with the US intelligence community as a source or collaborator.
As said by David Hundeyin of his Twitter/X handle, “In the filing, the CIA effectively confirmed that Nigeria’s sitting president is an active CIA asset.”
And since they have dirt on him it makes him very pliable and ready to please then.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, the DEA’s filing included a paragraph that literally said: “We oppose full, ‘unredacted’ disclosure of the DEA’s Bola Tinubu heroin trafficking investigation records because we believe that while Nigerians have a right to be informed about what their government is up to, they do not have a right to know what their president is up to.”
Since Hundeyin and Greenspan filed the request in March 2023. Their question was: ‘What was Tinubu’s role in the 1993 drug trafficking investigation?’ but since the US refused to cooperate with the inquiry, Nigeria and Nigerians have moved on with their lives.
Shebi he has become President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and we have accepted him. He should just perform that’s all! We as Nigerians are no longer interested in what he did or did not do over 30 years ago in the US. God dey!
(IFEANYI IZEZE writes from Abuja: iizeze@yahoo.com; 234-8033043009)
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