Where is President Bola Ahmed Tinubu?

We must all be bothered about the patriotic remarks by the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, in questioning the whereabouts of our President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Obi, who raised the issue on his X handle, noted that the President had spent significant time outside the country, while Nigeria was facing a national emergency. He asked: “In the midst of this chaos, where has our President been, spending 196 days abroad in 2025 alone—more than he has spent within his own country, at a time when we face profound crises?” In a system that is properly governed along the democracy lines of checks and balances among the arms of government – executive, legislature and judiciary, this is an issue that should demand serious attention.

Of course, you may dismiss the observation by Obi as being expected of someone in opposition. But it is quite instructive and disturbing, specially at this period of worsening socio-economic conditions in the country. The closest Nigerians came to know about the President’s current absence, was through a terse statement on Sunday, December 28, 2025, announcing his departure from Lagos for Europe as part of his end-of-year break, ahead of his official visit to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The release added that the President was scheduled to participate in the 2026 edition of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week Summit, following an invitation from the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The summit was expected to hold in early January. The next mention of the President was a heavily contested picture depicting him in a private meeting with his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, in France. A section of the media alleged that the picture was an Artificial Intelligence-generated image. But the Presidency disagreed, insisting that it was real.

Whatever it was, the fact is that Tinubu and his handlers have not demonstrated sufficient respect to Nigerians who, they claim, voted him to office. The latest disappearance is not the first time the President would be missing in action. It has rather become habitual to the point of his being the butt of jokes among Nigerians on social media platforms. For a country that has been going through rough patches in terms of shrinking economy, expanding unemployment market, rising inflation and debilitating insecurity, the President being away at this time amounts to serious disservice.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 100 Nigerians have been dispatched to their graves by the murderous activities of bandits, terrorists and all shades of criminals. At moments of national emergency as Nigeria presently finds itself, leadership matters; a leader’s presence counts. It is not for nothing that in the military retired personnel and reservists remain prepared to support active-duty military forces during emergencies, wars or natural disasters. 

For the President, the demands and expectations are more. Occupying the office is not a prize to be won but a job to be done. That is the essence of the title ‘Commander-in-Chief.’ Being the President goes beyond snatching power in connivance with corrupt election supervisors and running with it. Leadership is not a tea party.  It is a calling that entails sacrifice, commitment and dedication. That was the point made by the iconic Nelson Mandela, former South African President, at the Albert Luthuli Centenary Celebrations, on April 25, 1998, when he advised: “Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people”. Mandela did not just mouth the mantra. He lived and manifested it. Leaders are supposed to lead from the front in moments of uncertainties. But for Tinubu, it is a different ball game. He has largely outsourced his functions to ineffectual unelected aides and remains ensconced in the comfort of better managed foreign lands, not bothered at the plight of citizens at home. There can be no better description of betrayal of trust to his supporters and mismanagement of the country.

Nigerians, as it is, can no longer sleep with their eyes closed due to the rising scale of insecurity. Agreed, the security challenges did not commence with the present administration. But the tempo has escalated. And painfully enough, not much is being done to address the situation. But for the timely strike by the United States of America against the terrorists in Sokoto in the early hours of December 25, 2025, Nigerians would have woken up to sordid tales of coordinated attacks against Christian and other worship centres in some parts of the country. Curiously, barely three days after the intervention by the US, Tinubu took off as if nothing happened. Not even the New Year massacre of Nigerians in Agwara and Borgu local government areas of Niger State in which over 60 lives were lost to faceless goons could make him shorten his stay abroad and return home.

This, incidentally, was the same person who in his days of opposition, regularly chided the then President Goodluck Jonathan to quit for his failure to curtail the security challenges confronting the country. In March 2013, Tinubu had pointedly told Jonathan; “If it is happening in these other states for some of these years and you have not gathered enough intelligence to nip it in the bud you have failed, please resign”. A year later, in December 2014, Tinubu doubled down on his mockery at Jonathan. In one of his profound statements, Tinubu said, “If you control the armed forces and you are the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic, why should any part of this country be under occupation? And you give us excuses every day. In any civilised country Jonathan should have resigned”. Tinubu is now on same seat, confronted by same menace but has not done much. Could it be the axiomatic nemesis catching up with him?

For whatever anyone would say about Jonathan’s weaknesses and lethargy, he did not abandon Nigerians when it mattered. He did not scurry to other land while the country burnt. He was around battling the cocktail of real and orchestrated challenges before his administration. On the other hand, Tinubu, who pontificated from the rooftops and recommended resignation to Jonathan for not living up to expectations, has not only failed more woefully but has dragged the country into the abyss. Rather than toeing the noble path of resignation which he had suggested to his predecessor, he has hung on, ruling from the diaspora and scheming to be returned for an unmerited second term in 2027.

There is no how the President can continue with this “Absence Without Leave” (AWOL), to borrow a military lingo. His duty is cut out for him. He has to come back and face it or leave it to others if he cannot handle the pressure, stress, or difficulties of the job. That is the eternal lesson of the advice by the 33rd US President, Harry Truman that; “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”. The options are for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.