By EMMANUEL I. OGEBE, Esq

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

Aso Rock Presidential Villa

Abuja, Nigeria

Dear President Tinubu,

Greetings from Washington. In June 1996, I was abducted and tortured in the presidential villa for writing to Gen. Abacha to investigate Kudirat Abiola’s death and to resolve the June 12 crisis. On the 30th anniversary of that incident, I am commemorating it by writing to you, a fellow prodemocracy icon of that era, who is now seated in the presidential villa.

In March, I saw you being driven in convoy from 10 Downing Street in London and marveled how you, who had been on exile here the first time I saw you, shortly after my release, in company of several prodemocracy leaders, was now being hosted to a state visit. It was quite historic and reminded me of the nostalgia I felt when I returned to the presidential villa last year for an award 29 years after I had been a prisoner there.

However, Mr President, all is not well at home. You’re not misruling with the monstrosity, incompetence and malevolence of your predecessor, for sure, but yet all is not well at home.

MORTGAGED FUTURE: In May, 2023, your administration removed fuel subsidy that helps the masses but spent N90 Billion on pilgrimage subsidy within your first year. NNPC then borrowed $10 billion ($3 Billion oil and $7Billion gas against future earnings) to “defend the naira.” How does one take interest-bearing loans to opaquely prop up a currency with nothing to show for it while mortgaging the prosperity of our posterity?
SHORTCHANGED POWER/ECONOMY: In March 2026, you took a £750 million pound loan from UK for port reforms. The implementer is your friend Gil Chagoury. In April, you reportedly got an over half billion dollar loan approval for the $13 Billion Sokoto-Badagry road – again Chagoury – sacking the Finance Minister who allegedly opposed it as fiscally irresponsible. This is separate from the $13Billion Lagos-Calabar road contract also Chagoury’s – totaling almost $30 Billion federal funds to one man (not counting his Eko Atlantis empire) if you include his snake island concession. For context, the entire Paris Club debt overhang that Nigeria had from the ‘70s to the 2000s was over $20 Billion Dollars. Obasanjo paid off $18Billion and got debt forgiveness for the balance. Now we’re in multidimensional poverty and going into multigenerational debt for the benefit of one man who has even relocated from Nigeria. As his Governor, Chagoury became a Lebanese Omonile granted Lagos lands and waters which he dollarized and recently sold a half billion dollar consulate to the U.S. As President, Chagoury has become the French-based owner of the national purse like France is the central bank of francophone countries. In May, while building pointless multibillion dollar roads, you’re cancelling an essential $717 million World Bank electricity project because your policies ravaged and savaged the economy rendering it unviable – per the Funder. If economic hardship caused the whole World Bank to give up, what is it doing to the poorest of the poor?

The geometric power plant in Aba cost $800 million (less than $1B). The Chagoury road contracts are enough to build a power plant in 30 states & FCT. Under Buhari, Nigeria went from 1st to 2nd Economy in Africa after eight years. Nigeria is now 4th Economy in Africa. Why didn’t you invest all these in power to radically initialize and realize your trillion dollar economy ambition?

This is what is expected from the innovative Tinubu who used Enron Barges to power Lagos from the Atlantic Ocean as governor! Mr President, where is that bold innovator?

Today, Gov Otti of Abia is comfortably heading to a second term by popular acclaim while you battle the ghost of your failed promise that Nigerians shouldn’t reelect you if don’t provide electricity.

Nigerian only escaped Paris Club Debt thanks to the nation’s first Yoruba president to bondage to a Parisian’s Club under its second Yoruba president.

3. REBIRTH OF ABACHA’S ABIKUS – VAMPIRES’ EMPIRE: Mr Chagoury shares a glaringly similar and familiar history with you and Budget minister Bagudu as an international money laundering triumvirate. Mr President appears to have a predilection for certified international criminals. Buhari’s presidency that by omission allowed the Bagudus free rein over Nigeria’s right to reclaim €200 Abacha loot currently in US forfeiture litigation has been succeeded by your presidency that by commission empowered the Bagudus to determine control of repatriation and use of all of the Abacha loot around the world!

Mr President why would you surround yourself with criminal characters creating the impression that yours is a government of money launderers, by money launderers for money launderers?

Gen. Abacha’s loot laundering Fixers are Nigeria’s budget minister and infrastructure builder. For context, when Biden’s Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, the first black to hold that position, visited Nigeria to discuss illicit finances, ironically, his counterpart in Nigeria, the Budget Minister, was the father of all illicit financial inflows – positive and negative historicity.

Wally Adeyemo and MP Kemi Badenoch, then UK Secretary of Trade for the United Kingdom, both Nigerians immigrants bagged law degrees from Yale and London University however Atiku Bagudu broke the laws of US, UK, Nigeria, Isle of Jersey etc while they were yet children.

Clearly, Nigeria exports human capital to excel in leadership abroad and elevates criminal elements to rulership at home. Here’s the impact.

Minister Bagudu’s 2015 budget plan required $2.2 Billion in loans to fund while Bagudu was blocking €200 million stolen Nigerian funds in a U.S. court from being returned to Nigeria. That would have reduced Nigeria’s budget deficit to $2 Billion.

The bonds, presented to the National Assembly for ratification, comprised a $1.7 billion Eurobond and $500 million of sukuk, ” https://guardian.ng/news/oil-backed-loans-opec-quotas-threaten-fgs-n47-9tr-budget-plan/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2dTj1k5w5VKnxewYsNgfpYpA_qJTQz20i52wsfMb5ca0H0MGcNrTNLUpQ_aem_XHlwr4zBcWDEjcsi5wReeQ

Bagudu’s cabinet role has been proven a demonstrable conflict of interest to Nigeria’s. A loyal budget minister would have prioritized the recovery of the Abacha loot to mitigate the budgetary shortfall instead of claiming the €200 million personally for his family and putting the nation further in debt.

Mr President, why appoint a US money laundering forfeiter as Budget Minister, having forfeited at least 1000 times more money than you in the US alone - $458,000,000 to $460,000 - and not expect him to do grievous damage from within government than he did from outside government decades ago?

A pro-democracy icon like Otunba Jumoke Ogunkeyede whose New York house was burnt down by the Abacha regime after he refused a $5million bribe to compromise has never been compensated. The military officer implicated in that covert op still serves in your government today. How is it fair for those who paid the price to birth our democracy to languish while abortionists of our freedom are flourishing in power?

4. FOREIGN FIGHTERS – YOUR LIABILITY LOBBYISTS: Mr President, a concerning issue is your engagement of US lobbyists at a cost of $750,000 monthly compared to President Jonathan’s cost of $75,000 monthly.

What did you get for paying 10 times the price previously paid by the Nigerian government?

A. The First Lady was denied speaking opportunity by multiple entities during her February U.S. visit in an unprecedented diss.

B. Your DCI lobbyists defamed an American humanitarian Alex Barbir who has rebuilt devastated communities including the June 12, 2025 Yelwata massacre site and courageously visited the Jos 2026 Palm Sunday massacre which you didn’t visit

C. Your DCI lobbyists attacked US Congressman Riley Moore who president Trump assigned responsibility on Nigeria

D. A U.S. Commission has recommended the banning of CPC-designated governments from hiring U.S. lobbyists citing your $9million DCI contract

E. Congressmen have condemned your DCI contract both on the floor of congress and in the media.

F. DCI booted an American humanitarian with multiple schools in Nigeria as guest of a US congressman to dinner with the First Lady

Your lobbyists are grievously doing you more harm than good.

“Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, strongly condemned recent acts of transnational repression targeting Nigerians and Nigerian-Americans in the United States following a March 12, 2025 congressional hearing he chaired on religious persecution in Nigeria.

“These alarming acts of intimidation—occurring both before and after my Congressional hearing—are not isolated,” said Chairman Smith, author of H.Res. 220—to designate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC). “They reflect a troubling pattern of retaliation linked to testimony before Congress on religious freedom abuses in Nigeria.”

“I am appalled by reports that Bishop Wilfred Anagbe and Father Remigius Ihyula are facing threats—allegedly from Nigerian government sources and affiliated organizations—because of the Bishop’s testimony before Congress detailing violence in Nigeria’s Benue State,”

Chairman Smith also cited the past case of the courageous Nigerian human rights attorney Emmanuel Ogebe, who has faced retaliatory efforts from Nigerian authorities following his 2015 congressional testimony, including attempts to revoke his passport and smear his reputation.

“Mr. Ogebe was forced to sue to protect his constitutional rights. Others remain in hiding. In the worst cases, they become martyrs. This must end,” Smith said.

“The United States cannot allow foreign actors to intimidate or harass individuals within our borders for exercising their basic rights—particularly those who are assisting Congress by providing testimony.” Smith concluded. “I will continue to work aggressively with the U.S. Department of State, the Department of Justice, and other relevant agencies to take swift and decisive action to confront these acts and hold those responsible fully accountable.” Rep. Smith condemns transnational repression targeting Nigerians following Congressional hearing on religious persecution | U.S. Representative

While your regime has not been as bad as Abacha or recently Buhari’s senseless regime which spent millions running covert ops in the U.S. and sabotaging the Chibok girl’s educational progress, etc, DCI has done you a great disservice by attacking Americans on your account.

On May 13, 2026 Flip Holsinger published an incendiary article via Washington Examiner

(https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/op-eds/4564069/christian-genocide-nigeria/) accusing an American humanitarian of murder claiming, “Barbir's actions resulted

in his expulsion from the country for inciting religious hatred, and rightly so.”

I was frantically contacted that Mr Babir had reportedly been arrested in Jos and whisked to Abuja. I reached out to your security officials who assured me that it was highly unlikely as I suspected. Mr President, you are no fool unlike your predecessor.

This is why it is shocking that your lobbyists would publish such injurious falsehood against your administration because it would be totally out of character for the Tinubu that we know to deport an American for his views when you are renowned for respecting opposing views.

Buhari’s administration only tried to revoke my passport attracting the ire of Congress but now you’ve reportedly upgraded to revoking an American critic’s visa and deporting him?

Unfortunately, it gets worse. The lobbyists attacked President Trump’s congressional pointman on the Nigeria situation in “These materials (are) distributed by DCI Group AZ, L.L.C. on behalf of the Republic of Nigeria through Aster Legal,” on May 20, 2026 saying

“When he’s not spending his spare time representing West Virginians, Representative Riley Moore is the Nigerian opposition party’s biggest Republican ally in Washington.

But this weekend, Moore went too far, claiming credit for President Trump and President Tinubu’s highly successful joint military operations against ISIS leadership in West Africa.” Representative Riley Moore's Grandstanding Is Undermining President Trump's Security Partnership with Tinubu in Nigeria - Secure Nigeria

Buhari called his wife a member of the opposition but he wasn’t crazy enough to call the congressman whom President Trump sent to Nigeria on a fact-finding mission a Nigerian opposition operative!

You can see that this self-promoting publication was not furthering your interest but was mere chest thumping by DCI to justify their overpaid underperformance.

More shockingly they even went so far as to call Congressman Riley Moore who the President tasked with submitting a roadmap on the Nigerian situation “a useful instrument for those trying to destabilize a critical American ally.”

With due respect Mr President, this does not represent you well.

Just weeks ago in Jamaica, Gen. Obasanjo admitted to us at a Diaspora conference that insecurity was precipitated by the non-mopping of arms after the Biafra civil war and compounded by arms and militia proliferation and infiltration from Libya.

Gen. Buhari himself stated in the U.S. that Ukrainian arms are now seeping into Nigeria.

Right now, audit revealed 178,459 missing arms of the Nigerian police.

This is not counting Iran’s importation of 13 container loads of weapons into Nigeria or Hizbolah and Hamas arms depots discovered in the premises of Lebanese businesses around the country or even arms smuggling by Turkish Airlines.

Boko Haram’s first attack was in President Obasanjo’s first term and even then I raised alarm about the pro-Bin Laden extremism I noted in the north. To say advocacy against terror is politically motivated against you is simply disingenuous and untrue.

Indeed if anything, it was your party’s handpicked flag bearer Gen. Buhari who imported Fulani terrorists from abroad to help violently takeover the country if APC lost the elections as revealed by your party men so if it’s political, then it’s APC’s doing!

Having myself been tortured at the villa, it is deeply disconcerting that journalists have been subjected to abuses by your security operatives. This includes Segun Olatunji, who was abducted and mishandled by security operatives of the DIA for two weeks.

This should not be happening in a democracy. Journalists are not subject to military institutions in the first place and especially under a president who was a pro-democracy activist with us. When I interacted with you in the pro-democracy era when we were in exile I briefed you what happened to me as Abacha detained me. For such torture to be happening now is unconscionable.

It was military people who tortured me in Aso Rock Villa in June 1996. So to hear that the same thing is happening under you is sickening. It should not be and those who perpetrated it should be held to account.

I also urge you to terminate the DCI lobbying contract which ends this month and not renew it for another six months. DCI has already rendered itself liable to a defamation lawsuit by US citizens and entities just as I myself sued the Buhari regime and his U.S. fronts as US House Africa Subcommittee Chairman Chris Smith noted. Indeed DCI has exceeded their scope of work going on a frolic of their own by attacking US congressman ostensibly at your behest.

5. LIBERATION LEGACY – JUNE 12 TIME FOR NORTHERN CHRISTIANS & HAUSAS: Finally for this installment, I must draw your attention to the fact that Christians are more marginalized now than even independence when the UK handed power to a southern Christian president and northern Muslim Prime Minister. Mr President how could you who fought for regional equality and a southern president alongside us during the June 12 struggle sideline and subjugate northern Christians?

We have established that a southern Christian or Muslim can be president but why can’t a northern Christian be even a Vice President?

Mr President I will ask you the same question that I asked Gen Abacha that led to my abduction and torture:

“You were able to resolve the disputed sultanate by deposing and replacing the sultan with the rightful occupant. Since you could solve a problem that affected only a section of Nigerians why don’t you also resolve the issue of June 12 presidential elections which affects all Nigerians?”

In your particular case, Mr President, you have proved that a non-military southern Muslim can be president so why not prove that a northern Christian can be Vice President?

In fact, Mr President, you did more than Abacha - you took out the Fulani from power for the first time after holding #1 or #2 for over two decades of the return to democracy. You have given suppressed Hausas and oppressed middlebelters respite but you have not actualized hope. Why not do for Hausas, northern Christians and the southwest what June 12 did for Yorubas and southwest Nigeria?

June 12 was to equalize all regions and religions in Nigeria and not to perpetuate an enthno-religious political between the core north and southwest. Mr President, if you do things:

Generate electrical power
Equalize political power you will leave a lasting legacy in Nigerian history. Right now, respectfully, what legacy have you to show to warrant a second term?

Mr President, I wrote Gen. Abacha five letters before he had me abducted. This is the first of several letters I will write to you because I want the labors our heroes past and present, including mine and yours, not to be in vain so Nigeria succeeds and lives up to its promise for Africa and the world. You have the option to do as Abacha did or to heed advice but my only question is who of the captor and the captive is still standing today?

To be continued

Emmanuel I. Ogebe, Esq

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