The Yoruba Ronu Leadership Forum has challenged former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Head of State Abdulsalami Abubakar, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, former President Goodluck Jonathan and other elder statesmen to speak out on the controversy surrounding United States law-enforcement records relating to President Bola Tinubu.
The group said the country’s respected statesmen could no longer remain silent over what it described as lingering questions about the President’s integrity and international reputation.
In a statement issued on Sunday and signed by its President, Chief Akin Malaolu, the organisation said recent developments in an ongoing legal battle in the United States over access to records concerning Tinubu had brought the matter back into the public domain.
According to the group, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, had stated in court filings that the records at issue related to a criminal investigation involving drug-trafficking offences and that Tinubu was the subject of an investigation.
The group, however, acknowledged that being investigated did not amount to a criminal conviction or establish guilt.
“This does not amount to a conviction, nor should anyone pretend that an investigation is proof of guilt,” the statement said.
It nevertheless argued that the alleged investigation raised questions that warranted public scrutiny because Tinubu currently occupies Nigeria’s highest political office.
“The President of Nigeria is not an ordinary private citizen. Questions arising from a documented criminal investigation by a foreign law-enforcement agency go directly to issues of transparency, integrity and the international standing of the Nigerian state,” it said.
Group questions elder statesmen’s silence
The organisation specifically questioned the silence of prominent Nigerian statesmen who, it said, had historically intervened in national debates whenever they believed the country’s democracy, institutions or international reputation were at stake.
It singled out Obasanjo, who was President when Tinubu served as Governor of Lagos State, asking whether the Federal Government of the time did everything within its powers to establish the facts surrounding any issues that may have been known or investigated.
The group also referred to reports of political alignments involving Obasanjo and speculation about his possible support for Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid.
It said the former President’s alleged political proximity to Tinubu made his silence on the current controversy particularly significant.
“Today, amid reports of political alignments involving the former President vis a vis his speculated support for Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid, Obasanjo’s silence on these troubling developments inevitably raises questions about whether political considerations are being allowed to compete with principle,” the group said.
It stressed, however, that its concerns were not limited to Obasanjo.
“Where are Chief Emeka Anyaoku, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, Professor Wole Soyinka, former President Goodluck Jonathan and the other respected Nigerians who have repeatedly spoken out when they believed that the country’s democracy, institutions or reputation were at stake?” it asked.
The group urged the elder statesmen to demand that the records at the centre of the legal proceedings in the United States be made public to the fullest extent permitted by law.
‘This is not a demand for Tinubu’s conviction’
The Yoruba Ronu Leadership Forum said its position should not be interpreted as a demand that anyone declare Tinubu guilty of an offence.
Instead, it said it was calling for transparency, accountability and credible answers to the questions arising from the U.S. proceedings.
