The Presidency has declared that President Bola Tinubu is “hale and hearty,” and working from his vacation residence in France.
The declaration follows worries being expressed by Nigerians and opposition political leaders over the long absence of the president from Nigeria and the inability of the Nigerian leader to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
President Tinubu has been away in France for about two weeks in what presidential sources described as an “extended working vacation.”
Reacting to public enquires through a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday night, presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, stated that President Tinubu was deploying digital technology to work while on the vacation.
“Nigeria’s President is hale and hearty. He has been on a working vacation, which he is perfectly entitled to. In this digital age, he does not need to be physically present in Abuja to do the work for which he was elected in 2023.”
According Onanuga, evidence that President Tinubu is working while in France included the signing of agreement to build a deep seaport in Ogun State, a project valued at $7billion.
Onanuga also dismissed the inability of the president to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for the third consecutive year. He noted that two other African leaders also stayed away from the UNGA without it raising dust in their countries.
According to the statement, “we have seen that he has indeed been working, meeting investors in France, most recently facilitating a $7 billion deep-sea port in Ogun Waterside, an initiative of the Ogun State Government.
“Two other important African leaders were not in New York for the UNGA: South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Ramaphosa booked himself off public engagements. Johannesburg and Pretoria made no uproar over Ramaphosa’s absence at UNGA. And Egypt did not erupt that Sisi did not go to New York. The Nigerian President announced he was taking his annual vacation and delegated attendance to his able and dependable Vice President.
“Yet Peter Obi pretends to be unaware of President Tinubu’s whereabouts and asks the puerile question his followers are asking on X.
“President Tinubu will return home this week to mark Nigeria’s 66th Independence Anniversary and honour MKO Abiola, the martyr of the democracy we enjoy today, by attending the premiere of a movie in MKO’s memory in Lagos.”