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President Bola Tinubu is yet to fully explain the nature of the umbilical cord that connects him to France. He frequently visits that European country. And even when he is billed to visit another country, most times, he stops over in France as well. What is he really looking for in that country?
On Sunday, May 3, 2026, he jetted out to France in what his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, called investment drive. From France, he will visit Nairobi in Kenya and Kigali in Rwanda. In Nairobi, he will attend the Africa-France Summit between May 11 and May 12. The Summit, to be co-chaired by President Emmanuel Macron of France and William Ruto of Kenya, will focus on energy transition, green industrialization, digital transformation, restructuring of global financing architecture, and climate action.
Themed “Africa Forward: Africa-France Partnerships for Innovation and Growth”, the summit is expected to provide a high-level platform for African leaders and their French counterparts to deliberate on economic transformation, climate resilience, infrastructure development, youth empowerment, technological advancement, and peace-building initiatives, among other critical issues affecting the continent.
From Kenya, Tinubu will move to Kigali to attend the annual Africa CEO Forum, said to be the largest gathering of African private sector leaders, investors, and policymakers. This takes place between May 14 and 15. At the two summits, the President is expected to highlight his administration’s reforms aimed at repositioning Nigeria as a prime destination for investment and growth.
Oftentimes, when some Nigerian leaders want to momentarily escape from the variegated pressures at home, or attend to their health, they use investment drive as an alibi to travel abroad. Former President Umaru Yar’Adua was frequently abroad for medical treatment. In his first tenure as president, the late former President Muhammadu Buhari visited not less than 33 countries. The same thing happened during his second term in office. Sometimes, it was to attend to his health.
Since he assumed office in May 2023, Tinubu has made not less than nine trips to France. Even as president-elect, he visited that country in March 2023. This has made that European country his most visited. The visits are either termed working vacations or private visits.
Before his present visit, he had visited in June 2023 to attend the New Global Financial Pact Summit in Paris. Among other trips, he was in France in October 2023 for an ‘important engagement’; in January 2024 on a private visit; in April 2024 for private reasons; in October 2024 for an ‘important engagement’; in November 2024 on a state visit; in February 2025 on a private visit; in April 2025 on a working visit to appraise his administration’s midterm performance and assess key milestones; and in September 2025 on a working vacation.
Speculations are rife that some of these visits might be for medical reasons. But the Presidency has denied it. The question remains, what are the tangible benefits Nigeria has derived from its romance with France? Is there any significant impact on our gross domestic product, national income and foreign direct investment?
To the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, “these visits have helped reposition our country on the world stage, yielding tangible benefits that will support long-term prosperity.” He said Nigeria had already secured $50 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) commitments through Tinubu’s diplomatic drive, “with major companies and sectors committing to investments spanning energy, manufacturing, logistics, agriculture, technology, and infrastructure.”
France is said to be Nigeria’s top trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2023, the bilateral trade between the two countries was reportedly worth over $5 billion. This is unlike in many of its old colonies where it has lost influence significantly to Russia and China. Quoting the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) last year, Onanuga enthused that Nigeria’s net foreign exchange reserves increased to $23.11 billion from the 2023 figure of $3.99 billion.
To the average Nigerian, this reported increase in foreign reserves and FDI means nothing. It does not reflect in his meagre income. It does not put food on his table. Day in, day out, he sees political office-holders living a life of opulence. He hears about companies shutting down operations and laying off staff due to harsh operating environment. Yet, our President junkets abroad under the guise of attracting foreign investment.
Nevertheless, investors are not stupid. They will wine and dine with you, make some nice statements, but will not invest because of the volatile nature of Nigeria. They read and hear about the spate of kidnappings, the killing of some of our Generals and other military officers and the general exploits of terrorists in some parts of the country. It will be foolhardy for them to come and invest in such an environment.
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The worst is that our president, sometimes, travels amid some of these killings and destruction of properties in the country. He departed for France on a private visit in January 2024 when terrorists were already wreaking havoc in Mangu Local Government Area (LGA) of Plateau State. In April 2025, he stayed put in France while violence and killings were going on in Benue and Plateau States.
Elsewhere, a president hearing such atrocities being committed in his country, will cut short his foreign visit and return immediately. Tinubu never bothered to return. Even when he visited Jos in April this year to sympathise with the victims of the Palm Sunday massacre, he ended up addressing a gathering of government officials and community leaders within the airport premises. He didn’t go to the communities to meet with the people.
The point is, Tinubu should stop wasting our scarce resources on fruitless travels. He should stay at home and face governance squarely. If it is too important, the Minister of Foreign Affairs can represent him. He doesn’t have to travel himself. If it’s about investment, the Finance Minister can do that. In any case, how many presidents have visited Nigeria since he assumed office in May 2023? Mr. President, let Nigerians breathe!
RE: My take on Obi/Kwankwaso ticket
There is no gainsaying what 2027 represents in the life of Nigeria and Nigerians. It will be a war of liberation, a battle between the wearied masses and the marauders masquerading as rulers. It will be a winner takes all between the good and the bad. The outcome of the 2027 presidential election will determine if Nigeria is destined for bloom or doom. On the other hand, the 2027 elections will show the depth of reconciliation and integration in the country. It is the real litmus test to Nigeria’s acceptance or not of the Igbo as part of the nation and the test starts with the Peter Obi Presidential candidacy.
The Obi/Kwankwaso ticket, more than any other ticket, represents not only the assured force to oust the scourge ravaging our political space but also one to actually put Nigeria back on the track of real democracy and development. It ticks the box in all the parameters imaginable: equity, competence and integrity.
In arriving at this conclusion, one has to look at the other available options viz – His Excellency Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s candidacy and His Excellency Rotimi Amaechi’s candidacy. Supporting either of the two other options is like trying to replace a fox with a wolf. I will explain.
Aside from the fact that the two – Atiku and Amaechi – are now trying to be the healers to an ailment they inflicted on the victim (Nigeria) given the prominent roles they played in foisting the APC on Nigerians in 2015, they also come with a lot of minuses.
The Nigerian democratic system is oiled by the principle of rotation between the North and the South, this fact is known to all and sundry. The North, in recent times, has done its full cycle of eight years (Buhari 2015 to 2023) and the South is in its third year of eight years term (Tinubu 2023 to the present). So it will amount to a great injustice to allow a northerner to mount the Presidency now. Coming to the South; of the three regions that make up the South, it is only the South-East which is yet to taste the Presidency.
A brief chronology of the South Presidency will suffice: Obasanjo 1999 to 2007 (South-West), Goodluck Jonathan 2010 to 2015 (South-South), Tinubu 2023 to present day (South-West again). Amaechi is of the South-South and Atiku is of the North. So like the late Dr Ogbonnaya Onuh asked – “where is the justice?” Though Peter Obi has repeatedly said he is not contesting on the basis of ‘it is my turn’, we, his kinsmen, think otherwise. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Give the South-East a chance!
Another two minuses for Atiku are his age and the unwieldy number of associates around him. Nigeria and Nigerians have experienced and endured real ‘shege’ in the hands of two gerontocrats (Buhari and Tinubu) since 2015 and it will amount to a lifetime curse to allow another gerontocrat to mount the saddle. Then with an Atiku Presidency, we will have more than one Seyi to contend with plus his retinue of praise singers who had contributed their fair share to the ruination the country presently grapples with.
As for Rotimi Amaechi, we have a saying in Igbo – “the way a person eats fried breadfruits goes a long way to show how he will handle the main dish”. Or as the Bible has it, “He who is faithful in little, will be faithful in much”. There is another saying on trustworthiness: “He who lies for you, can lie against you”. He had held two prominent positions, in addition to Speaker of a State Legislature, Governor of a State and Federal Minister. As the Governor of Rivers State, he left monumental wastages and ill-conceived projects as memorabilia. There was the Monorail (that led to nowhere), which did not cover up to two kilometers that ended up abandoned with billions expended on it. There were the Model Secondary Schools in the three senatorial districts, which despite the billions sunk in them were never brought to fruition. His immediate predecessor, Celestine Omehia, built a modern Mall up to eighty percent completion. He came in, abandoned it and today the structure is completely demolished to the ground. As Federal Minister of Transport under the Muhammad Buhari administration, he initiated the Rail Project to Niger Republic. We are all witnesses to its completion and takeoff. Therefore he has not shown himself as a prudent manager of public funds.
Nigeria is in dire straits and needs a committed leader to get it off the precipice. Any lover of the country who desires the good of the nation should swallow personal ego and ambition, join hands with others to effectively rescue the country from the asphyxiating hold of the anacondas squeezing it. Peter Obi is not a saint and may not have all the solutions to the problems we face but he is a lesser evil and more trustworthy politician than everyone out there.
–Aloy Uzoekwe, Anambra, 08038503174
