Former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has criticised President Bola Tinubu for embarking on yet another foreign trip despite what he described as Nigeria’s worsening domestic challenges.
In a statement on Wednesday, Obi condemned the President’s planned departure from Abuja on Thursday, August 14, for a two-nation trip to Japan and Brazil, with a stopover in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. According to the official itinerary, Tinubu will attend the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD9) in Yokohama, Japan, from August 20 to 22, before proceeding to Brazil. The statement noted that the itinerary did not specify the President’s return date.
Obi said the move reflects insensitivity, pointing out that Tinubu had only recently returned from Brazil and had not visited any of Nigeria’s crisis-hit states. He also criticised the President’s tendency to leave the country days ahead of scheduled events, citing his earlier week-long visit to St Lucia before attending the BRICS Summit, where Nigeria participated merely as an observer.
The former Anambra governor described the situation as “deeply worrisome,” accusing the President of prioritising foreign engagements over urgent domestic issues
