Former Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, has attacked President Bola Tinubu for his planned trip to Japan and Brazil, saying he is not a tourist.
According to the statement issued by Tinubu’s Special adviser to the president on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga, his principal would embark on a two-nation trip, with a stopover in Dubai, United Arab Emirates before proceeding to Japan.
Obi, a former Anambra State Governor, wrote on his x handle that the president’s recent trip reflects a troubling pattern.
He also added that Tinubu spent a week in Saint Lucia before the recent BRICS summit, where Nigeria participated only as an observer, even though the invitation was presented as a “partnership”.
“Amid the deplorable state of our nation in all ramifications, we have a virtually indifferent President who has continued to display insensitivity to our situation,” Obi wrote on X.
“How can anyone explain that a President who came from Brazil recently and met with the President is returning to the same country, leaving the various degrees of challenges at home unresolved?
“The latest itinerary of the President shows he will depart Abuja on Thursday, August 14, for a two-nation trip to Japan and Brazil.
.“The President will stop over in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, before proceeding to Japan.
“In Japan, President Tinubu will attend the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD9) in the city of Yokohama from August 20 to 22.
“The itinerary is silent on the President’s return date to his visibly troubled nation. The situation we find ourselves in is deeply worrisome.
“Our President, who has not found it worthy to visit any of our troubled states, takes joy in travelling to foreign countries at the slightest invitation or excuse, often departing several days before the events he’s invited to.”
Obi said Nigeria’s insecurity and economic distress have reached record levels, placing the country among the most insecure nations, most fragile economies and hungriest countries in the world.
According to him, the president’s energy should be directed at visiting communities back home, spending time on the ground and taking decisive steps to ease people’s suffering rather than “overseas conferences that contribute little or no tangible value to our nation’s woes”.
