Bashir El-Rufai, the son of former Kaduna State Governor, has sharply criticized President Bola Tinubu, likening him to the notorious drug lord, Pablo Escobar, and calling his presidency the biggest mistake Nigerians ever made.
On Tuesday, through his X handle, Bashir commented, “Lmao. Na the biggest mistake Pablo Escobar & his henchmen will make.”
Bashir’s tweet, although not explicitly naming Tinubu, has been interpreted as a reference to the Nigerian President, given Tinubu’s alleged ties to heroin trafficking and money laundering in the 1990s. Court documents from that period reveal that Tinubu forfeited over $460,000 in suspected drug proceeds to U.S. authorities.
Despite Bashir’s indirect reference, his statement highlights Tinubu’s controversial past, including accusations of pushing and shipping drugs during his time in the United States. Federal agencies like the FBI, CIA, and DEA have resisted public demands to release Tinubu’s drug case files.
Aaron Greenspan, who filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit to obtain these files, faced opposition from these agencies. They argued that unredacted case files could compromise U.S. operations abroad. The DEA added, “We oppose the full, unredacted release of the DEA’s Bola Tinubu heroin trafficking investigation records because… they do not have a right to know what their president is up to.”
While Tinubu has achieved political success, his alleged criminal history continues to cast a shadow over his presidency. The Biden administration’s refusal to release the full case files has intensified public scrutiny and sparked debates over transparency and leadership integrity in combating international crime. Nigerians have appealed to U.S. President Donald Trump to authorize the release of the FBI case files concerning Tinubu, following Trump’s recent executive order designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
