The Labour Party presidential flagbearer during the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, has faulted the foreign trips embarked upon by both President Bola Tinubu and his deputy, Vice President Kashim Shettima.
He said the trips, coming when the country is grappling with domestic challenges, were concerning.
The PUNCH reports that Tinubu departed for the United Kingdom on October 2, 2024, for a two-week working leave. He later left the UK for France on Friday, October 11, for “another important engagement,” his Senior Special Assistant on Political and Other Matters, Ibrahim Masari, tweeted.
Meanwhile, Shettima left Abuja on Wednesday for Sweden on a two-day visit to represent Nigeria in bilateral engagements with the Scandinavian nation.
Justifying both trips, the Presidency on Wednesday said the absence of Tinubu and his deputy does not pose any vacuum in Nigeria’s leadership. It said the two principal officers are “fully engaged with the nation’s affairs, even while away.”
But reacting to the Presidency’s justification on Friday in a post on his X, Obi, who is also a former Anambra State governor, maintained that it was disturbing that Tinubu and his deputy weren’t in the country at a time when citizens need them most.
He wrote, “While it is arguable that with the President and Vice President absent from the Villa, there is no vacancy in the Presidency, in a situation where both the President and Vice President are out of the country, as reported in the media yesterday, it’s concerning for a country with such myriads of domestic problems.
The President had told us he would only be gone for 14 days. The 14 days have passed now, and we are waiting to see him in the country. One would have expected him to return earlier than expected, considering the volume of work that needs to be done in a troubled nation like ours.
“The untold hardship that has been unleashed on our people as a result of some of his administration’s policies is unimaginable and we need his urgent attention to pilot the nation out of this present situation.”
