•Tinubu jets out
President Bola Tinubu is now expected to depart Abuja today for a two-nation trip to Japan and Brazil, contrary to an earlier announcement.
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, had on Wednesday stated that the President would depart Abuja yesterday, with a stopover in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, before heading to Japan.
However, sources at the Presidential Villa disclosed that Tinubu spent yesterday attending to official matters, including a meeting with the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, reports The Guardian.
As of press time, there was no official statement on the change of plans, but multiple presidential sources confirmed that the President may now begin his trip today.
In Japan, Tinubu is scheduled to attend the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD9) in the city of Yokohama from August 20 to 22, before proceeding to Brazil.
Meanwhile, Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has delivered a rebuke of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, accusing him of treating Nigeria like a stopover lounge while the country bleeds. Obi’s outrage was against the earlier plan by the president to travel yesterday.
“Mr President is not a tourist,” Obi declared in a fiery statement on X, titled: “Again, our president moves as the nation bleeds. He is the Chief Executive of a troubled nation, and his duty is here, not in endless foreign conferences that add little or no value to our people.”
Obi questioned why Tinubu would “rush off abroad again” barely weeks after returning from Brazil, where he had already met that nation’s leader while Nigeria grapples with spiralling insecurity, hunger, and economic hardship.
“Our insecurity, economic collapse, and human suffering have peaked. We are now ranked among the most insecure, most fragile, and hungriest countries in the world. This is the time for 100 per cent effort and tireless commitment at home, not extended trips abroad,” Obi said.
The former Anambra State governor drew attention to Tinubu’s recent pattern of prolonged absences, recalling how he spent a full week in St Lucia before attending the BRICS Summit as an observer, despite the meeting being portrayed as a “partner” role.
“Actual BRICS leaders arrived just a day or two before the summit. Why was our president gone so long?” he asked.
Obi argued that any foreign trip, if truly necessary, should be short and targeted.
“This current trip could have been wrapped up in five days. The Japan event starts on the 20th, yet our president is leaving on the 14th.”
He urged Tinubu to channel his travel energy into touring Nigeria’s most distressed states, engaging directly with communities, listening to their pain, and taking urgent action.
“Nigerians know we can’t fix all our problems overnight. But they need to see their leader fully present, fully engaged, and fully committed. We are a country on fire. The president must act like the firefighter-in-chief, not a globe-trotting dignitary.”
