Tinubu expected back in Nigeria this week, presidential aide says

President Bola Tinubu is expected to return to Nigeria this week after spending several weeks abroad on what his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, described as a working vacation. Onanuga said in a post on X that the president was “hale and hearty” and had continued working while outside Nigeria. He argued that Tinubu did not need to be physically present in Abuja to carry out his presidential responsibilities in the digital age.

According to the aide, Tinubu held meetings with investors in France. Onanuga also attributed to the president a role in facilitating a proposed $7bn deep-sea port at Ogun Waterside, an initiative of the Ogun State Government. Tinubu left Nigeria on 30 August for what the Presidency initially described as a three-week annual holiday.

He travelled first to London and then to Paris, before the Presidency announced that the working vacation had been extended by several days. Vice-President Kashim Shettima represented Tinubu at the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York. It was the third consecutive year, according to the supplied material, that Tinubu delegated the leadership of Nigeria’s delegation to the vice-president.

The president’s absence has drawn criticism from opposition figures. Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar questioned whether Tinubu had sent a written declaration to the National Assembly leadership, citing Section 145 of the Constitution and asking whether Nigerians had seen evidence that the procedure had been followed. Peter Obi also criticised the decision to spend the vacation in Europe and questioned why the president could not take his holiday within Nigeria.

The Presidency has maintained that Tinubu remained in contact with developments at home, continued directing government and gave Shettima his full mandate at the UN gathering. Onanuga compared Tinubu’s non-attendance at the UN meeting with the absence of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. He said Tinubu would return to mark Nigeria’s 66th Independence Anniversary and attend a Lagos premiere of a film about the late MKO Abiola.