The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has questioned President Bola Tinubu’s decision to embark on a three-week vacation amid the challenges facing the country.
ThelensNG reports that President Tinubu departed Abuja for Europe on a three-week vacation, with London, United Kingdom, as his first stop.
Reacting to the development, Atiku acknowledged that Nigeria may not be facing a constitutional vacuum today, but there is a disturbing vacuum of political leadership.
“I have travelled, lived and spent time abroad, and I have never pretended otherwise. But there is a fundamental difference between the travels of a private citizen and the responsibility of the sitting President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Consider what Bola Tinubu is leaving behind. Petrol priced beyond the reach of ordinary people. Families rationing food. Transport fares that have turned a journey to one’s own village into a luxury. Insecurity that buries Nigerians week after week. And in the middle of all this, President Tinubu has packed his bags for three weeks in Europe,” he said.
Atiku noted that the Vice President is abroad on official duty, saying the Vice President’s absence makes the President’s decision even more difficult to understand.
He explained that leadership is not merely the constitutional right to occupy an office but also the judgment to know when the country needs you at home.
“A father may travel when all is well. But when his roof is burning and his family is trapped inside, he does not pick up his suitcase and head for the airport.
“That is the issue here. It is not that a President must never rest or travel. It is that Nigeria is burning, and the President has chosen a boarding pass over the fire extinguisher,” he argued.
Atiku lamented that millions of Nigerians are being grounded by hardship while their President is airborne.
The former Vice President stressed that the people can barely afford to move, but the President keeps moving, adding that a government that cannot feel the pain it inflicts will never summon the will to end it.
He further stated that Tinubu made Nigeria expensive and that he would make Nigeria affordable again.
