The Presidency has said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is hale and hearty and has continued to discharge his responsibilities while on a working vacation outside Nigeria.
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this in a post on his X platform on Sunday.
Onanuga said Tinubu was not required to be physically present in Abuja to perform his duties, particularly with the availability of digital communication tools.
“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,” he said.
According to him, the President had continued to work during his vacation, including meetings with investors in France.
Onanuga said Tinubu had most recently facilitated a $7 billion deep-sea port project in Ogun Waterside, an initiative of the Ogun State Government.
He also compared Tinubu’s absence from the ongoing United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York with that of other African leaders.
“Two other important African leaders were not in New York for the UNGA: South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi,” he said.
Onanuga said Ramaphosa had booked himself off public engagements, while Egypt had not faced public uproar over President el-Sisi’s absence from the UNGA.
He said Tinubu had announced his annual vacation and delegated Nigeria’s representation at the UNGA to Vice President Kashim Shettima.
The presidential aide also criticised former Anambra State governor and 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, over comments concerning Tinubu’s whereabouts.
“Yet Peter Obi pretends to be unaware of President Tinubu’s whereabouts and asks the puerile question his followers are asking on X,” Onanuga said.
He added that Tinubu was expected to return to Nigeria during the week to participate in activities marking the country’s 66th Independence Anniversary.
According to Onanuga, the President would also honour the late Chief MKO Abiola, whom he described as a martyr of Nigeria’s democratic struggle, by attending the premiere of a movie produced in his memory in Lagos.
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