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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
African Democratic Congress (ADC) Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has demanded a full explanation from President Tinubu over his repeated absence from the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
Atiku, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said President Tinubu stayed away from UNGA in the 79th, 80th UNGA in 2024 and 2025 respectively, and would again not be participating in the 81st UNGA scheduled for this year.
The Presidency in a statement by Stanley Nkwocha, media aide to Vice President Kashim Shetimma, on Sunday, indicated that the Vice President would lead Nigeria’s delegation to the 81st UNGA, as well as represent President Tinubu at the event. Shetimma had previously represented the President at previously at the assembly.
The ADC candidate stated that President Tinubu’s three consecutive absence at UNGA could no longer be dismissed, as coincidence or routine delegation. He stated that it allegedly constitutes a pattern of presidential evasion requiring an honest explanation.
According to him, “the United Nations General Assembly is one of the world’s most important diplomatic gatherings. It brings together the representatives of the UN’s 193 member states and provides a unique platform for presidents and prime ministers to defend their countries’ interests, negotiate partnerships and shape global decisions on trade, security and development.
“Vice President Shettima may represent Nigeria capably, but representation by delegation cannot permanently substitute for the personal authority, visibility and responsibility of the President.
“Tinubu cannot continue to treat Nigeria’s seat at the world’s biggest diplomatic table as though it were an inconvenient appointment that can be endlessly outsourced.
“Presidential absence on the global stage has consequences. UNGA is not merely a ceremonial gathering or an annual photo opportunity. Its sidelines are where leaders hold decisive bilateral meetings, court investors, negotiate trade partnerships, mobilise development finance and make the case for their countries.
“When a President makes himself absent from that stage for three consecutive years, his country loses opportunities. Investment does not follow silence. International capital does not pursue a country whose leader repeatedly abandons the room in which consequential economic relationships are being built.
“The cost is eventually transferred to ordinary citizens: fewer investments mean fewer businesses and fewer jobs. Reduced capital inflows place additional pressure on the local currency. A weaker naira raises the cost of imports, production, transportation and food. These are among the economic pressures now punishing Nigerian families through the worst cost-of-living crisis in living memory.”
The former Vice President recalled that Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) , Jimoh Ibrahim, had announced that he had secured Tinubu a seat “not too far from where the US President, Donald Trump, will be seated.”
Atiku, while noting that “the seat was secured, but the President disappeared,” stated that “Tinubu may consider attending UNGA a matter of personal prerogative, but the economic and diplomatic consequences of his absence are being paid by Nigerians. A President may surrender his seat, but a nation cannot escape the bill.
He added that “if proximity to President Trump was considered such a diplomatic achievement, why did Tinubu abandon the opportunity and send his deputy? Why celebrate securing a strategic seat for the President when the President had no intention of occupying it?
“That contradiction becomes even more scandalous when Nigerians remember that Tinubu’s administration committed up to $9 million of Nigeria’s scarce foreign exchange to American lobbyists supposedly hired to improve its standing before the government and people of the United States.
“What exactly did Nigerians purchase with that money? Why spend millions of dollars lobbying Washington while Tinubu repeatedly stays away from New York? Why hire lobbyists to speak for Nigeria in America when the Nigerian President cannot summon the courage to appear at the world’s biggest diplomatic gathering on American soil?
Did the lobbyists fail, or is Tinubu’s American baggage simply too heavy for any public-relations firm to carry?”
The ADC candidate, who stated that President Tinubu’s persistent avoidance of the United States inevitably invites troubling questions, wondered if the President is “afraid that he could become Donald Trump’s next Nicolás Maduro?”
