US Citizens seeking information from public institutions do not have the kinds of issues we experience in Nigeria. All that anyone seeking information on public records on individuals and institutions has to do is log on to the Public Access to Court Electronic Records, PACER System, and viola, the records are made available.
The power that that system has recently came to bear on the questions regarding the real identity of an Ahmed Bola Tinubu. At some point it was alleged that he was a drug dealer who was convicted and therefore had to refund some monies to the US government. At some other point, there is a lot of doubt as to his real or official age and state of origin and nationality. It appears safe to say that part of the reason why there was all of this conflict was that our own undeveloped record keeping systems came full tilt with that of another country’s that had digitized their recording systems as far back as the early 80s and 90s.
