Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has criticized President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for embarking on a trip to the Caribbean at a time when insecurity and hardship are worsening across Nigeria.
Obi, a former Anambra State governor, made the statement via his verified X (formerly Twitter) handle, in a post titled, “No, Mr President, this is not the Time for Holidaying.”
According to him, what he has seen and experienced over the last two years has been deeply troubling, particularly the government’s poor response to the widespread insecurity, economic hardship, and general suffering of ordinary Nigerians.
“In the past two years, Nigeria has lost more people to all sorts of criminality than a country that is officially at war,” Obi wrote.
He further described Nigeria as one of the most insecure places in the world, stating that many citizens are battling hunger and extreme uncertainty about their next meal.
“With such a gory picture of one’s country, you can imagine my bewilderment when I saw a news release from the Presidency announcing that President Bola Tinubu is departing Nigeria today for a visit to Saint Lucia in the Caribbean,” Obi said.
The Presidency confirmed the trip, which had earlier been announced by Saint Lucia’s Prime Minister, Philip J. Pierre, during a pre-cabinet press briefing last week.
“According to the Prime Minister’s announcement, ‘two of these days, June 30 and July 1, will be dedicated to an official visit, with the remainder of the trip set aside as a personal vacation,’” Obi quoted.
Obi said he initially dismissed the news, thinking it was false, especially since the President had recently returned from a holiday in Lagos.
“I didn’t want to believe that anybody in the position of authority, more so the President, on whose table the buck stops in this country, with all the myriad problems in virtually all areas of governance, would contemplate a leisure trip at this time,” he said.
Obi criticized the President for failing to visit Minna, Niger State, where a recent natural disaster claimed over 200 lives and left more than 700 missing due to flooding.
“This is a President going for leisure when he couldn’t visit Minna, Niger State, where over two hundred lives were lost… I wonder which type of incident will happen before a President is attracted to show physical sympathy to the distressed citizens,” Obi said.
He also referenced the President’s recent visit to Benue State, which he described as more of a political event than a condolence visit, pointing out that children were made to line the streets while the President did not even reach the actual site of the killings.
“Makurdi is 937.4Km², which is over 59% bigger than St Lucia… and Minna is 6789 square kilometres, which is 10 times bigger than St Lucia,” Obi said, adding that St Lucia’s population is far smaller compared to both Nigerian cities.
Obi said the current state of the country does not warrant leisure or vacationing from those in leadership positions.
“This regime has repeatedly shown its insensitivity and lack of passion for the populace, going by the way it prioritises the rich and shows indifference to the poor,” he lamented.
“One had expected the President to be asking God for extra hours in a day for the challenges, but what we see is a concentration of efforts in the 2027 election and on satisfying the wealthy while the mass poor continues to multiply in number,” Obi added.
