- Safiu Kehinde
The 2027 African Democratic Congress Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has questioned President Bola Tinubu over his decision to withdraw his scheduled appearance at the 2026 United Nations General Assembly in the United States with Vice President Kashim Shettima set to replace.
NPO Reported that the presidency had last month announced that Tinubu will be joining other world leaders to address the 81st Session of UNGA General Debate slated to hold from Tuesday September 22 to September 28, as the UN headquarters in New York.
The plan would however be changed on Sunday as Tinubu mandated Shettima to go and represent him.
This is also coming amid the controversies surrounding the heroine trafficking allegation case against Tinubu as revived by the US-based lobbying firm, Von- Batten LC.
The lobbying firm hired by Atiku had threatened to.ensure the president is embarassed on arrival for the 2026 UNGA as it revealed plan to make world lesders present at the event aware of the alleged heroine trafficking case involving him.
With Tinubu withdrawing from the meeting, Atiku demanded a full explanation from him over his repeated absence from UNGA which he alleged that the president has missed for three consecutive yesrs.
The ADC candidate asked whether the President’s documented history with United States law-enforcement agencies has become a burden on Nigeria’s foreign relations.
As contained in a statement issued on Sunday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Mr Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said Tinubu stayed away from the 79th UNGA session in 2024, the 80th in 2025 and now the 81st in 2026, repeatedly sending Vice President Kashim Shettima to stand in for him.
He said three consecutive absences could no longer be dismissed as coincidence or routine delegation but constituted a pattern of presidential evasion requiring an honest explanation.
“The United Nations General Assembly is one of the world’s most important diplomatic gatherings. It brings together the representatives of the UN’s 193 member states and provides a unique platform for presidents and prime ministers to defend their countries’ interests, negotiate partnerships and shape global decisions on trade, security and development,
“Vice President Shettima may represent Nigeria capably, but representation by delegation cannot permanently substitute for the personal authority, visibility and responsibility of the President.
“Tinubu cannot continue to treat Nigeria’s seat at the world’s biggest diplomatic table as though it were an inconvenient appointment that can be endlessly outsourced.
“Presidential absence on the global stage has consequences. UNGA is not merely a ceremonial gathering or an annual photo opportunity. Its sidelines are where leaders hold decisive bilateral meetings, court investors, negotiate trade partnerships, mobilise development finance and make the case for their countries.
“When a President makes himself absent from that stage for three consecutive years, his country loses opportunities. Investment does not follow silence. International capital does not pursue a country whose leader repeatedly abandons the room in which consequential economic relationships are being built.” He said.
Meanwhile, Atiku described as extraordinary the reported announcement by Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Jimoh Ibrahim, that he had secured Tinubu a seat “not too far from where the US President, Donald Trump, will be seated.”
“The seat was secured, but the President disappeared,
“If proximity to President Trump was considered such a diplomatic achievement, why did Tinubu abandon the opportunity and send his deputy? Why celebrate securing a strategic seat for the President when the President had no intention of occupying it?
“That contradiction becomes even more scandalous when Nigerians remember that Tinubu’s administration committed up to $9 million of Nigeria’s scarce foreign exchange to American lobbyists supposedly hired to improve its standing before the government and people of the United States.” He said.