The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, has criticised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s visit to Saint Lucia, asserting that Nigeria’s challenges do not call for “leisure”.
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, in a statement on Friday, said that President Tinubu will depart Abuja today on a two-nation visit to Saint Lucia and Brazil.
“His first stop is Saint Lucia, where he will pay a state visit as part of efforts to deepen Nigeria’s engagement with Caribbean nations and strengthen South-South cooperation. At the end of the visit to the Island State, President Tinubu will fly to Brazil to participate in the 17th Summit of BRICS in Rio de Janeiro,
“During the visit to Saint Lucia, President Tinubu will pay courtesy calls on the Governor-General, His Excellency Cyril Errol Melchiades Charles, and Prime Minister Philip Pierre. A key highlight of the visit will be President Tinubu’s address to the special joint session of the Senate and the House of Assembly of Saint Lucia at the William Jefferson Clinton Ballroom, Sandals Grande, Gros Islet.
“The Heads of Government of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), senior government officials, members of the diplomatic corps, members of the Nigerian community in the country and the Director-General of OECS, Dr Didacus Jules, have been invited to attend the special session.
“President Tinubu will hold a high-level working luncheon with the Heads of Government of OECS, after the joint session of the Parliament of Saint Lucia. Discussions at the luncheon will focus on specific parameters to deepen cooperation between Nigeria and the OECS for shared prosperity through economic partnerships and cultural solidarity,” the statement reads in part.
Onanuga noted that the visit is expected to open new pathways for infrastructure development, educational cooperation, youth empowerment, and diplomatic exchange, emphasising that upon President Tinubu’s engagements in Saint Lucia, he will proceed to Brazil to participate in the 2025 BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro from July 6-7, 2025.
He also stated that the President is attending the summit at the invitation of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, on the strength of Nigeria’s status as a ‘partner country’, a membership category short of full status.
Reacting to the trip in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, Obi expressed dissatisfaction, noting that “this is not the time for holidaying”.
He wrote: “Dear Nigerians, I am struggling with my senses to understand what is happening to governance in this country. What I have seen and witnessed in the last two years has left me in shock about poor governance delivery and apparent channelling of energy into politics and satisfaction of the elites, while the masses in our midst are languishing in want.
“In the past two years, Nigeria has lost more people to all sorts of criminality than a country that is officially at war. Without any twilight, Nigeria ranks among the most insecure places in the world. Nigerians are hungrier, and most people do not know where their next meal will come from. 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.
“The Presidency release merely confirmed an earlier news report since last week where the Prime Minister of the Caribbean Philip J. Pierre announced at a pre-cabinet press briefing on Monday, last week that President Bola Tinubu is expected to depart Nigeria on Saturday, June 28, 2025, for Saint Lucia for official engagements and private leisure time. 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.”
He continued: “I told the person who drew my attention to the Caribbean story that it cannot be true and that the President is just coming back 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.
“This is a President going for leisure when he couldn’t visit Minna, Niger State where over two hundred lives were lost and over 700 persons still missing in a flood natural disaster. I wonder which type of incident will happen before a President is attracted to show physical sympathy to the distressed citizens.
“The other state in crisis where over two hundred lives were murdered, the President yielded to public pressure and visited Makurdi the state capital for what turned out to be a political jamboree than condolence as public holiday was declared and children made to line up to receive the President who couldn’t even reach the village, the scene of the brutal attack.”
The politician explained that, in terms of land size, Makurdi is 937.4 Km², which is over 59% larger than St Lucia’s 617 km², and Minna is 6789 square kilometres, which is ten times larger than St Lucia.
He stressed that St Lucia, with a population of 180,000, is less than half of Makurdi’s 489 839, and Minna, with 532, 000, is almost three times the population of St Lucia.
“I don’t think the situation in this country today calls for leisure for anybody in a position of authority, more so the President, on whose desk the buck stops. 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.”
Obi said that this very obvious indifference of the federal government to the suffering of the Nigerian poor should urgently be reversed. “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.”
He urged Nigerian leaders to know that the God-given resources of the country belong to all, not just a few, adding that the time has come to put a stop to this drift before it consumes all and focus on pulling people out of poverty.
