Former presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, has accused President Bola Tinubu of abandoning Nigeria at a time of historic national distress.
Obi’s hammer landed after records showed Mr. President spent 196 out of 365 days abroad in 2025 while the country descended deeper into poverty, hunger, insecurity and mass unemployment, adding that Tinubu’s prolonged absence, including a European holiday since December without a New Year address, represents a collapse of leadership under his presidency.
The former Anambra Governor and 2027 presidential hopeful warned that “a nation of over 200 million people cannot be governed by press releases and aides while its president is missing in action.”
Writing on his verified ‘X’ handle earlier today (Monday, January 12) Obi lamented that Nigeria is now home to the largest population of extremely poor people on earth, one of the hungriest nations globally, and a country where over 80 million young people remain unemployed, yet its President has failed to speak directly to the people at a critical moment.
He condemned what he called the “outsourcing of leadership”, noting that Nigerians learned of foreign military strikes on Nigerian soil through the U.S. and international media rather than from their own President.
Referencing a controversial digitally generated presidential photo earlier this year, Obi said, “Leadership is not all about dishing out AI-generated images or press statements; it is standing before your people when they are afraid, hungry, and uncertain.”
According to Obi, Tinubu’s repeated foreign trips and prolonged silence have created a dangerous vacuum, weakening national unity at a time when Nigeria urgently needs direction, reassurance and collective purpose.
The 2023 presidential candidate, who noted that in times of crisis, absence is not neutrality but failure, quickly added that no economic reform, security strategy or political agenda could survive in a country where citizens feel abandoned by their own government.
