NOTHING can separate President Bola Ahmed Tinubu from his foreign working trips. If we disturb him too much, he can move the Presidency to Paris, London, Brasilia or even Castries, yes, that is the capital of St. Lucia, and visit when he wants.

Who will say no, when Tinubu says yes?

Everything about these “working vacations”, and “working trips” are mystified. The current trip is different – “diplomatic meetings” have been included in the President’s schedule.

Nigeria has envoys at these locations. They are not qualified to take on the issues that the President will be handling during his trip because the President has rendered them redundant. The matters could be of such nature that only the President can deal with them when on a private visit.

In February 2025, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar had said that the President was not making enough foreign trips. If your concerns were about the high bills, Tuggar said Nigeria could cope very well.

“Look at the benefits, you travel once and you get N2 billion dollars of investment like he did to Brazil, where other countries are chasing after them. But President Tinubu was able to secure that, to invest in developing livestock. They are the largest player in that sector, slaughtering 50 million chickens every day, 8 point something million cows and look at the Brazilian cows that are 500kg compared to ours that are 250kg. This will also solve herders-farmers’ crisis.

“In fact, I would rather say we are not travelling enough, we should do more. Nigeria has the money. How much does travelling cost compared to the benefits? And how much does it cost comparing it to the things that the President has already addressed?”

Tuggar decidedly misses the points. He is glad that the President does his job.

Our President is burdened with the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited, Its major parastatal that is the main manager of the oil and gas resources that fuel the economy, has been in a messy phase for weeks. NNPCL’s Group Chief Executive Officer Bashir Bayo Ojulari has been forced out of office, returned to office but he is still complaining that some very powerful people want him out of office though he has the backing of the President, Commander-in-Chief, who put him in office, and who is the Minister of Petroleum Resources. Ojulari was appointed only in April 2025.

Those remarks were strong indictments of the President’s indifference to NNPCL’s importance to the national economy. Maybe, the President is strategising on solving the problems in NNPCL. Ojulari has said a lot already.

Paris and London could afford him sanity to decide on NNPCL, its drain pipes of refineries, and a direction for the industry. If he needs the hefty files on NNPCL’s challenges, they can come in diplomatic bags, ferried post haste to anywhere the Minister of Petroleum Resources dictates.

Our hardly working President can do with some rest after weighty decisions that he should make soon on his Ministers and appointees. Mostly of them are like him, hardly working. Their supporters blame the President for travelling ever so often that Ministers cannot have one-on-one briefings with him.

The President was unavailable when Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State lamented his limited powers to tackle insecurity in the state.

“I swear to Almighty Allah, wherever a bandits’ leader is located within Zamfara State, I know it, and if he goes out, I know. With my mobile phone, I can show you where and where these bandits are today. But we cannot do anything beyond our powers,” the Governor of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said in the video.

“If today, I have the power to give orders to the security agencies, I can assure you, we will end banditry in Zamfara State within two months.

“Most of the time, I shed tears for my people because I can see a problem but, because I don’t have control over the security agencies, I cannot order the security operatives to act in time,” he said.

When Governor is dealing with security situations, security agencies take instructions from their officers in Abuja and in some cases, the approval of the President would be required.

Governor Lawal is right. His statement which is the stronger version of similar complaints from Governors across party lines, is being politicised as attacks on the President from an opposition politician.

All Progressives Congress, APC, has asked the Governor to stop making excuses for his failures. Local politics and illegal gold mining escalate the security situation in Zamfara.

Minister of State for Defence Bello Matawalle, is Lawal’s predecessor. Their rivalry adversely affects security.

Governor Lawal’s point about having equipment that shows the location of the bandits means official unwillingness to fight insecurity not only in Zamfara but in other States. Political differences cannot be good reason for the sufferings of the people at the hands of bandits.

Is the Governor's "magic phone” unavailable to the security agencies? The Zamfara issues are not really new.

Lawal had in 2023 accused federal security agencies of negotiating with bandits. APC has been asking for a state of emergency to be declared in Zamfara, a call the party repeated in the past week.

A Zamfara state-based human rights activist, Abubakar Dahiru filed a suit in 2024 asking for an investigation of Matawalle’s links with bandits.

While worsening insecurity is the case in North West, accidents in the waterways of Niger State have kept claiming lives. The pathetic official responses are worse with each new incident.

Nigerians are wondering about the timing of the President’s vacation. What makes it so compelling that it could not wait?

There is a vacuum as indicated in APC State chapters speaking on behalf of the President. Examples are Zamfara, and in Rivers State, where the state of emergency should be lifted by 18 September.

Arguments would easily erupt about the difference it makes, whether Tinubu’s working vacation is in Paris or Castries. There is no constitutional is not strict about the President’s base. The interest is more in the President handing over to the Vice-President as he dedicates his tenure to touring the world.

Finally…

PRESIDENT Ahmed Tinubu can be commended for the diplomatic moves that resulted in last week’s jailing of Simon Ekpa in Finland. He should free Nnamdi Kanu.

AFTER criticisms mounted over the Federal Government’s N200,000 reward for teenager Nafisa Abdullahi Aminu who won an English language contest in England, the government has denied awareness of the event. Minister of Education Dr.Tunji Alausa, has to explain which government he purportedly represented in that event.

THE series of accidents involving trucks implicate loose implementation of regulations, bad roads, poorly maintained vehicles and the number of people driving under influence. The appropriate agencies has work, more work to do.

ACADEMIC Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, is priming its members for a strike over failure of the Federal Government to implement an agreement reached in 2009. The urgency in effecting a 16-year-old agreement is a hint on the importance of education in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

•ISIGUZ0 is a major commentator on minor issues.

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