Trips to Tinubu and Shettima don’t reflect common sense — Obi

Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the general elections of 2023, has criticized President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima for their overseas travels.

He said it was alarming that the excursions were occurring at a time when the nation is facing internal difficulties.

On October 2, 2024, Tinubu left for the United Kingdom for a two-week working vacation. Later on Friday, October 11, he left the UK for France for “another important engagement,” according to a tweet from Ibrahim Masari, his Senior Special Assistant on Political and Other Matters.

Shettima, meantime, departed Abuja on Wednesday for a two-day visit to Sweden in order to represent Nigeria in bilateral talks with the country of Scandinavia.

The Presidency on Wednesday justified the two visits by stating that Tinubu and his deputy’s absence does not leave a leadership void in Nigeria. The two chief executives are “fully engaged with the nation’s affairs, even while away,” according to the statement.

However, in response to the Presidency’s defense on Friday, former Anambra State governor Obi maintained in a post on his X that it was troubling that Tinubu and his deputy were absent from the nation at a critical juncture.

The President and Vice President are both out of the country, as was reported in the media yesterday; while it is debatable that there is no presidential vacancy in this situation given their absence from the Villa, he wrote, “it’s concerning for a country with such myriad domestic problems.”

It was said by the President that he would only be gone for 14 days. We are still hoping to see him in the nation after the last 14 days. Given the amount of work that needs to be done in a country like ours that is experiencing turmoil, one would have expected him to return earlier than anticipated.

“We require his immediate attention to guide the country out of this current situation because of the unimaginable hardship that some of his administration’s policies have unleashed on our people.”

Tinubu committed to transforming Nigeria – Borno APC faction
He claims that one wonders why the President did so given that he is purportedly in Paris, France, which is only 833 nautical miles from Stockholm, Sweden.

It was said by the President that he would only be gone for 14 days. Now that the 14 days have gone, we hope to see him in the nation rather than just having him come Sweden for a two-day work visit.

Obi said, “He could have easily completed it in a little more than two hours on his way back from France in his new, powerful jet. Time and the extremely limited national resources that we desperately need right now would have been saved by doing this.

Rather, he assigned the Vice President to represent him at the function, which required him to travel 3055 nautical miles, more than nine hours, and roughly four times the time it would have taken to go from Paris to Abuja, Nigeria, to Stockholm, Sweden.

It would require roughly 4 multiplied by the length of time and distance required to go from Abuja to Stockholm from Paris. This is not the kind of economic responsibility or common sense one would expect from leaders whose people are suffering from extreme poverty and famine.

“Now is the moment to demonstrate to the people that you are a true and dedicated leader by making decisions that put their welfare first and efficiently use the limited resources of the country to lessen their suffering.”

Since taking office 17 months ago, these excursions represent the second occasion that both executives have left the nation at the same time.

Following his visits to Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands, Tinubu was in London in late April and early May of 2024.

Shettima left Nigeria to attend the International Development Association Heads of State Summit in Nairobi before traveling to the World Economic Forum.

Following his return, he traveled to Dallas, Texas, to attend the Corporate Council on Africa’s US-Africa Business Summit. But the vice president decided to change his plans midway and came back home.