Presidential hopeful Atiku Abubakar has criticised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for traveling out of the country at a very critical time, saying the president has left a leadership gap in the nation’s leadership.
According to Abubakar who’s also the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC President Tinubu seems not to understand the enormity of his office as the country’s leader, particularly at this times when there are myriads of challenges facing the country.
He said Tinubu cannot be traveling out of the country at will as if he’s a private citizen, saying the president must understand his responsibility as the ‘sitting President of the Federal republic of Nigeria.”
The former vice president made the assertion on his verified X post on Sunday, few hours after the Presidency announced that Tinubu was traveling out of the country to Europe for a three week annual vacation.
Abubakar, however, said the president should not have chosen to travel out of the country at a time when Nigerians are facing serious economic and security challenges, citing for instance, that food prices have hit the roofs, petrol prices gone beyond the reach of Nigerian among other hardship Nigerians are battling under the Tinubu’s administration.
He questioned why Tinubu chose to go out of the country at the same time Vice President Kassim Shettima was also outside the country, adding that the two Nigerians were behaving as if their services are not needed at home.
“Consider what Bola Tinubu is leaving behind. Petrol priced beyond the reach of ordinary people. Families rationing food. Transport fares that have turned a journey to one’s own village into a luxury. Insecurity that buries Nigerians week after week. And in the middle of all this, President Tinubu has packed his bags for three weeks in Europe,” the ADC presidential candidate said.
“The Vice President is abroad on official duty. That makes the President’s decision even more difficult to understand. Leadership is not merely the constitutional right to occupy an office; it is the judgment to know when your country needs you at home.
“A father may travel when all is well. But when his roof is burning and his family is trapped inside, he does not pick up his suitcase and head for the airport.
“That is the issue here. It is not that a President must never rest or travel. It is that Nigeria is burning, and the President has chosen a boarding pass over the fire extinguisher.
“Millions of Nigerians are being grounded by hardship while their President is airborne. The people can barely afford to move, but the President keeps moving.
“A government that cannot feel the pain it inflicts will never summon the will to end it,” he noted.
In a statement issued on Sunday by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, the Presidency said Tinubu had departed for Europe to begin a three-week vacation as part of his annual leave.
The statement said that the president’s first stop will be in London, United Kingdom.
Tinubu, according to the statement, is expected to return home after the working vacation to participate in his party’s, the All Progressives Congress, APC election campaign for next year’s general election.
Meanwhile, Sunday Dare, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communication, in his justification of the president’s travel outside the country said the vacation was well deserved and it will allow the Tinubu to “refuel”.
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