BREAKING NEWS: Opposition fumes as Tinubu makes 15th foreign trip in 2025

 President Bola Tinubu

 The Peoples Democratic Party, Labour Party, the New Nigerian People’s Party and the Coalition for United Political Parties have criticised President Bola Tinubu for his frequent overseas trips, describing them as insensitive and a reflection of the government’s lack of commitment to strengthening Nigeria’s health care system.

The parties in separate interviews with The PUNCH alleged that President Tinubu’s numerous foreign trips are as a result of his state of health.

The outcry comes as the Presidency announced on Thursday that Tinubu would be embarking on a 10-day vacation to Europe.

“The vacation will last 10 working days,” the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, revealed this in a statement he signed on Thursday.  Since taking office in May 2023, President Tinubu has undertaken at least 43 foreign trips.

The latest trip makes the 15th  international trip across 11 countries that Tinubu has undertaken in 2025 alone.

He only recently returned to the country after a trip to Japan and Brazil. His various trips include high-level summits, bilateral engagements, presidential inaugurations, and short holidays.

On January 6, Tinubu kicked off his diplomatic itinerary with a visit to Accra, the Ghanaian capital, to attend the inauguration of President-elect John Mahama on January 7.

He was at the United Arab Emirates, to attend the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Summit, from January 12 – 16, where he held side meetings with Gulf investors and officials on trade and energy cooperation.

 From January 27-28, he visited Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to participate in the Africa Heads of State Energy Summit on February saw the President travel to France before attending the 37th African Union Summit in Ethiopia, where he joined other African leaders in discussions on regional security, climate adaptation, and continental trade integration under the AfCFTA.

From April 2 – 21, President Tinubu embarked on a two-week working visit that included France and the United Kingdom.

In mid-May, the President travelled to Vatican City, attending the historic inauguration of Pope Leo XIV in Rome.

From June 28 to July 4, Tinubu undertook a landmark state visit to Saint Lucia, where he addressed CARICOM leaders in Castries. From Saint Lucia, he proceeded to Brazil, arriving in Rio de Janeiro for the 17th BRICS Summit (July 4–7).

The Brazil visit continued into August, when President Tinubu returned for a two-day state visit.

This came after he visited Japan in the same month to attend the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, where he pitched Nigeria’s investment readiness to Japanese multinationals and met Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on maritime security and digital infrastructure.

Before he arrived Japan, Tinubu and his entourage stopped over in Dubai, UAE, on August 15 and arrived in Yokohama days later on August 18.

It was his second visit to the Gulf state within the year.

On Thursday, President Tinubu departed Abuja, to commence a working vacation in France and the UK, as part of his 2025 annual leave.

“The vacation will last 10 working days,” the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, revealed this in a statement he signed Thursday. The statement is titled ‘President Tinubu departs Abuja to begin 2025 annual leave.’

“President Tinubu will spend the period between France and the UK and then return to the country,” Onanuga revealed.

Thursday’s trip comes barely one year after Tinubu took a two-week vacation in the UK last October.

He later headed for France, where he spent the remainder of the vacation.

In his reaction, the PDP Deputy Youth Leader, Timothy Osadolor lamented that taxpayers’ money is being wasted on unnecessary trips, adding that the Tinubu administration has failed to provide good governance. 

Osadolor stated, “I think the president’s frequent trips are highly insensitive, and they show a lack of faith in our national health care system because the reason he is travelling is for medical tourism.

“Imagine the billions of naira that will be spent as estacodes and used in paying frivolous charges that those foreign hospitals might have given to him, as well as the travel expenses for him, his caregivers, and the hangers-on that will have gone on this trip. Imagine the state of our local health facilities in this country.

“Let’s assume he is not even interested in giving all Nigerians affordable quality health care or building world-class facilities in different zones of the country. The Aso Rock Clinic, where we have billions of naira voted into its budget annually, year after year — what is the state of that facility?

“We have never heard that the president went to Aso Rock Villa to take a check-up or to take an injection, but rather we hear he has jetted to France.”

The PDP leader called on President Tinubu to refrain from seeking re-election, while urging Nigerians to reject both him and the All Progressives Congress.

Osadolor continued, “He has jetted to the U.S. He has jetted to the United Kingdom or is around the world seeking treatment. It is quite insensitive to the suffering of all Nigerians who struggle every day to make ends meet and whose tax is being used to fund this medical tourism.

“For me, I think that this government should not only apologise to Nigerians for its insensitivity and incapacities, but it should at best tell Nigerians the honest truth that it lacks the requisite capacity to deliver affordable health care and security for the lives of Nigerian people and therefore it should not stand in the next general elections to ask for the mandate of Nigerians.

“Or, in the alternative, Nigerians should realise by now, two years into the administration, without a single spectacular effort or landmark being achieved by this government in the health sector, that this government is not the one fit and proper to deliver affordable health care and security for Nigerians.

“And therefore, that should be more than enough resolve to kick out this government at the next poll and look for a credible alternative.”

For his part, the CUPP National Publicity Secretary, Mark Adebayo, also criticised Tinubu’s frequent foreign trips, describing them as wasteful.

Adebayo in an interview with The PUNCH stated, “The fundamental thing here that everybody must know is that we shouldn’t be surprised that the president is behaving that way. why? Because the president never contested for the presidency of Nigeria to govern Nigeria in the interest of Nigeria. He just said it was his lifetime ambition. So, it was a contest about his own personal ambition. It’s not about the welfare of Nigeria. We should not deceive ourselves. The man wanted to contest for president because it was his lifetime ambition, and nobody should expect him to govern. He can only rule and that is why he is wasting Nigeria’s resources on needless foreign trips.

“And that is why insecurity is worsening, that is why hunger in the land is burgeoning, and that is why the anger of Nigerians, you know, is spreading. So, the man doesn’t care about Nigeria or Nigerians. So he can best be described as a president in absentia. We should not sugarcoat anything. This man like Michea Jackson sang, ‘This man, he doesn’t really care about us.’ Tinubu’s presidency is not about Nigeria, it is about his cronies and his family.”

The CUPP spokesperson questioned why President Tinubu failed to transmit a letter to the National Assembly to hand over power to Vice President Kashim Shettima, as required by law.

“So the man doesn’t care. His frequent trips are just about him, probably about his health. Then,  when he was leaving, did he transmit a letter to the National Assembly for his vice to act? No, he didn’t. As constitutionally required, he did not. He said he was going for his annual leave, and he left the country and he didn’t transmit power to his deputy.

“That’s just to tell you that, his frequent trips abroad are the fact that his soul is abroad. It’s only his body that is here because of the seat he is occupying in Aso Rock. So the president is not in power for the benefit of Nigeria, it’s just for himself.”

The Labour Party’s National Legal Adviser, Kehinde Edun, berated the President, saying he has failed to convince Nigerians that he is the “father of the nation” as he claims.

He said, “It shows that the government lacks the capacity to deal with the situation we have on our hands. The situation is tense. We have problems everywhere. But it’s like the president is always seeking ways to escape. At every slightest opportunity, he always wants to escape. We have not really seen him sitting down and working. It’s unfortunate that we are where we are.”

Edun further argued that Nigerians are suffering while the President keeps flying abroad.

 He added, “This is a situation where there is so much hunger, poverty and pain in the land. Yet, all the people see here is their president travelling every time. Brazil today, America tomorrow. Now he is off again to France on vacation. Can Nigerians afford to go on vacation with the kind of pain and suffering in the land? The president should show that he is with the people.”

Former ZLP presidential candidate, Peter Obi, through his former campaign spokesman and National Coordinator of the Obidient Movement Worldwide, Dr. Yunusa Tanko, called for investigative journalism into Tinubu’s repeated travels to France.

He said, “The world is a global village now and it is very easy for us to identify exactly what is going on with our president. Let me urge the Nigerian press to use this moment to launch investigative journalism by tracing our president to know exactly where he is going.”

Obi also suggested that the frequency of Tinubu’s visits raised questions.

He added, “He has gone to France more than 10 times if I’m not mistaken. Is it that he is going there to do a business or whether Mr President has two or three more wives that he is going to take care of even though he is entitled to it as a Muslim? We don’t know. So please find out so that taxpayers’ money will not be in continuous waste.”

The NNPP also joined in the criticism, with its National Publicity Secretary, Ladipo Johnson, lamenting Tinubu’s frequent foreign trips.

He said, “What else can we say? Nigerians are tired of him already. In short, we don’t know what to say again. We are not even sure he has handed power to his vice president. I am sure they will soon tell us that Tinubu can govern from anywhere.”

Johnson added in frustration, “I think we should just keep watching because we are tired and fed up of talking about it. They don’t even listen to anybody and would not do what ought to be done.”