The national leader of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has said the ongoing controversy between President Bola Tinubu and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over the president’s United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) records is inflicting greater damage on Nigeria’s international reputation than the possible release of the documents themselves.
In a post on X on Thursday, Baba-Ahmed urged Nigerians to focus more on the reputational harm caused by the dispute than on whether the records are eventually made public. “Shouldn’t we be more concerned over the damage being done to our image as Nigerians by the PBAT/FBI/Atiku saga?” he wrote.
“We are already damaged by seemingly outsourcing our national security, unspeakable levels of corruption, poverty, crimes and collapse of integrity of key institutions.”
The comments come amid a legal battle in the United States. President Tinubu has gone to court to prevent the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration from releasing records linked to allegations of drug trafficking that date back to the 1990s.
The push for disclosure was initiated by American transparency activist Aaron Greenspan, who filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking the FBI’s full file on Tinubu, including Form 302 interview records from 1992 and 1993.
The case also concerns documents related to a 1993 civil forfeiture action involving approximately $460,000 that was allegedly linked to Tinubu.
Baba-Ahmed’s intervention highlights growing concern among some Nigerian political figures that the prolonged public dispute is reinforcing negative perceptions of the country abroad.