Barring any last minute changes, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will depart Abuja on Friday for a two-nation trip to Japan and Brazil, contrary to an earlier announcement.
Naijaonpoint recalls that the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, had on Wednesday stated that the President would depart Abuja on Thursday, with a stopover in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, before heading to Japan.
However, sources at the Presidential Villa disclosed to The Guardian that Tinubu spent Thursday attending to official matters, including a meeting with the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Multiple presidential sources confirmed that the President will now begin his trip on Friday.
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, the Labour Party 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.
Naijaonpoint reports that Peter Obi was reacting to Onanuga’s statement revealing Tinubu’s plan to visit Japan and Brazil, with a stop over in Dubai.
“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. Newspaper subscription bundles
“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. Newspaper subscription bundles.
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