The Labour Party presidential flagbearer during the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, has faulted the foreign trips embarked upon by both President Bola Tinubu and his deputy, Vice President Kashim Shettima. He said the trips, coming when the country is grappling with domestic challenges, were concerning.
NaijaTimesUSA reports that Tinubu departed for the United Kingdom on October 2, 2024, for a two-week working leave. He later left the UK for France on Friday, October 11, for “another important engagement,” his Senior Special Assistant on Political and Other Matters, Ibrahim Masari, tweeted.
Meanwhile, Shettima left Abuja on Wednesday for Sweden on a two-day visit to represent Nigeria in bilateral engagements with the Scandinavian nation.
Justifying both trips, the Presidency on Wednesday said the absence of Tinubu and his deputy does not pose any vacuum in Nigeria’s leadership. It said the two principal officers are “fully engaged with the nation’s affairs, even while away.”
But reacting to the Presidency’s justification on Friday in a post on his X, Obi, who is also a former Anambra State governor, maintained that it was disturbing that Tinubu and his deputy weren’t in the country at a time when citizens need them most.
He wrote, “While it is arguable that with the President and Vice President absent from the Villa, there is no vacancy in the Presidency, in a situation where both the President and Vice President are out of the country, as reported in the media yesterday, it’s concerning for a country with such myriads of domestic problems.”
Obi continued, “The President had told us he would only be gone for 14 days. The 14 days have passed now, and we are waiting to see him in the country. One would have expected him to return earlier than expected, considering the volume of work that needs to be done in a troubled nation like ours.
The untold hardship that has been unleashed on our people as a result of some of his administration’s policies is unimaginable and we need his urgent attention to pilot the nation out of this present situation.”
According to him, since the President is reportedly in Paris, France, which is just about 833 nautical miles from Stockholm, Sweden, one wonders why he did not just attend the two-day working visit to Sweden.
Obi added, “He could simply have done it on his way back from France with his new powerful jet, which would have taken him a little over 2 hours. This would have saved time and the very scarce national resources we need critically at this time.”
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“Instead, he delegated the Vice President, who needed to travel 3,055 nautical miles, over nine hours, and (about four times the travel time from Paris) Abuja, Nigeria, to Stockholm, Sweden, to represent him at the event.
It would take about four times the time and distance it takes to travel from Paris to Stockholm to travel from Abuja to Stockholm. This does not represent the kind of fiscal responsibility and common sense that is expected of leaders whose people are facing severe hunger and poverty.”
Obi concluded, “This is the time to show true and committed leadership to the people by making decisions that prioritize the well-being of the people and effective management of the nation’s scarce resources in alleviating the sufferings of the people.”
In a similar situation, former presidential spokesman Laolu Akande stated that it is not ideal for President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima to leave governance for foreign trips simultaneously.
Akande spoke on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Thursday. “It is important for one of them to be on the ground because the work of governance requires a lot of hand-holding,” he said.
“In my view, we still have a very serious problem of sustained trust in the relationship between the President and the Vice President over time,” Akande added.
While Tinubu departed Nigeria on October 2, 2024, for a two-week work leave in the United Kingdom, Shettima left Abuja on Wednesday for Sweden on a two-day visit to represent Nigeria in bilateral engagements with the Scandinavian nation.
In a statement on Wednesday, presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga said the two leaders “are fully engaged with the nation’s affairs, even while they are away” and there is no vacuum in governance.
However, Akande reiterated, “The ideal thing is for us not to have a situation where both the president and the vice president are not in town, that’s the ideal situation.”
He recalled, “I remember that during the eight years I served, that happened only once during the burial of the Queen (of England) which also fell at the same time as the UNGA and I knew how the president and the vice president were checking on each other to ensure that somebody gets back.
So, in eight years, they managed to ensure that for the most part, one person is always on the ground. I know quite a few times when the vice president had to just wrap up foreign trips because something happened and the president will have to travel.”
Meanwhile, the trips mark the second time both officers have been concurrently absent from the country since assuming office 17 months ago. Between late April and early May 2024, while Tinubu was in London, after visiting the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia, where he attended the World Economic Forum, Shettima left Nigeria, first to Nairobi to attend the International Development Association Heads of State Summit.
After returning, he left for Dallas, Texas, to attend the US-Africa Business Summit organised by the Corporate Council on Africa. However, the VP cancelled his trip midway and returned to the country. Tinubu returned to Abuja on May 8.
