Tinubu Hale and Hearty, He Will Return to Nigeria This Week —- Onanuga

Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to President Bola Tinubu on information and strategy, says his principal is “hale and hearty” and will return to Nigeria this week.

In an X post on Sunday, Onanuga said Tinubu has been on a working vacation and is entitled to take time off while continuing to discharge his responsibilities remotely.

He said the president’s absence from Abuja has not prevented him from working, noting that Tinubu has been meeting investors in France.

According to Onanuga, Tinubu recently facilitated a $7 billion deep-sea port project in Ogun Waterside, an initiative of the Ogun State government.

Onanuga also compared Tinubu’s absence from the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York with those of Cyril Ramaphosa, South African president, and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egyptian president.

He said neither South Africa nor Egypt generated controversy over their presidents’ absence from the UNGA.

“The Nigerian President announced he was taking his annual vacation and delegated attendance to his able and dependable Vice President,” Onanuga wrote on X.

He criticised Peter Obi, the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, for questioning Tinubu’s whereabouts despite the president’s announced vacation.

“Yet Peter Obi pretends to be unaware of President Tinubu’s whereabouts and asks the puerile question his followers are asking on X,” he said.

Onanuga added that Tinubu is expected back in Nigeria this week in time for the country’s 66th Independence Anniversary.

He added that the president would attend the premiere of a movie on the late Moshood Abiola in Lagos as part of activities to honour the former politician, whom he described as “the martyr of the democracy we enjoy today”.

The president had been expected to return to the country on Sunday after spending a couple of weeks in Europe on a working vacation.

Sources in the presidency said that Tinubu would arrive in Lagos, where he was expected to spend up to a week before proceeding to Abuja.