Presidency Defends Tinubus Absence as Obi Questions Where the President Is

Posted by Chinenye on Tue 29th Sep, 2026 - tori.ng

The Presidency says President Bola Tinubu is well and still working, even though he has been outside Nigeria for several weeks.

(President Bola Tinubu. Photo by Tribune Online)

The Presidency has said President Bola Tinubu is hale and hearty and that his time away from Nigeria is because of his working vacation.

Special Adviser on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga said this in a post online, on Sunday.

He said the President is still carrying out official duties while away from Abuja and is entitled to his annual vacation.

He added that in this digital age, Tinubu does not need to be physically in Abuja to do the job he was elected to do in 2023.

Onanuga said the President has been at work, meeting investors in France and most recently helping to push a 7 billion dollar deep sea port in Ogun Waterside, a project of the Ogun State Government.

He also noted that South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa and Egypt's Abdel Fattah el-Sisi were not at the UN General Assembly in New York either, and said there was no uproar in those countries.

According to him, Tinubu announced his vacation and sent his Vice President to attend in his place.

He accused Peter Obi of pretending not to know where the President is and of asking a childish question his followers are asking online.

Onanuga said Tinubu will return home this week to mark Nigeria's 66th Independence Anniversary and to honour MKO Abiola by attending the premiere of a movie in his memory in Lagos.

The reaction followed a post online by Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigerian Democratic Congress, on Mahama's address to the UN General Assembly on Thursday, September 24, 2026.

Obi asked where the leader of Africa's most populous nation is, a country of over 200 million people, who has been missing from the global stage for three UNGAs in a row.

President Tinubu is hale and hearty

Nigeria’s President is hale and hearty. He has been on a working vacation, which he is perfectly entitled to. In this digital age, he does not need to be physically present in Abuja to do the work for which he was elected in 2023.

And we… pic.twitter.com/KEj0uOZZPO
— Bayo Onanuga, OON, CON (@aonanuga1956) September 27, 2026