Former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi has criticised President Bola Tinubu over his planned 12-day trip to Japan and Brazil, calling it insensitive to Nigeria’s deepening security and economic crises.
In a post on his official X account on Thursday, Obi said the President’s frequent international trips demonstrated “indifference” to the nation’s urgent challenges, urging him to prioritise visits to crisis-hit states and engage directly with citizens.
According to the itinerary released by the Presidency on Wednesday, Tinubu is to leave Abuja on Thursday, August 14, for a two-country tour, with a stopover in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, before proceeding to Japan.
He is scheduled to participate in the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD9) in Yokohama from August 20 to 22, after which he will head to Brazil. The Presidency did not disclose his exact return date.
Obi pointed out that the President had only recently returned from Brazil after meeting with its leader and questioned the need for another visit to the same country within weeks.
He also mentioned Tinubu’s earlier week-long trip to St Lucia before attending the BRICS Summit, where Nigeria was present only as an observer.
“Our insecurity situation, economic hardship, and human suffering have reached their peak. We are now counted among the most insecure nations, the most fragile economies, and the hungriest countries in the world. This dire reality demands the full attention of Mr. President,” Obi said.
The former Anambra State governor argued that the Japan conference could have been attended within a shorter period, stressing that Tinubu’s prolonged foreign trips brought “little or no tangible value” in tackling Nigeria’s problems.
He urged the President to “commence tours of troubled states with the same enthusiasm he shows for travelling abroad.”
Obi further stated, “Mr. President must know that he’s not a tourist, but the Chief Executive of a troubled nation, so he must have consciousness, strict work schedules and a strict travelling schedule to show that he has a troubled country to quickly return to.”