Fireworks Over Tinubu’s Working Vacation as Atiku Alleges Power Vacuum

…Support group fires back: Vacation is routine, sell your policies to Nigerians

By Yinka Giwa
President Bola Tinubu’s three-week working vacation in Europe has triggered a fresh political row, with African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar accusing the President of leaving the country at a difficult moment, while a pro-Tinubu group dismissed the criticism as an attempt to turn a routine annual leave into an election issue.

The Presidency announced on Sunday that Tinubu would depart Abuja for Europe to begin a three-week vacation as part of his annual leave, with London, United Kingdom, as his first stop.

Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said Tinubu would undertake a working vacation and return to Nigeria afterwards to join the campaign for the January 2027 general elections.

But Atiku swiftly criticised the trip, arguing that the timing was inappropriate because Vice President Kashim Shettima was also outside the country on official duties.

According to the former Vice President, although the simultaneous absence of Tinubu and Shettima does not create a constitutional vacuum, it raises questions about political leadership at a time Nigerians are confronting economic and security challenges.

“Nigeria may not be facing a constitutional vacuum today, but there is a disturbing vacuum of political leadership,” Atiku said in a post on X.

He acknowledged that presidents are entitled to vacations and foreign travel, but argued that the responsibilities of the office should determine when such trips are appropriate.

“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,” he said.

Atiku cited petrol prices, food costs, transportation fares and insecurity among the challenges he believes require the President’s physical presence in the country.

“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,” he said.

The ADC candidate likened the situation to a father leaving his family while their house was on fire, insisting that the controversy was not about whether a President should be allowed to rest but about the timing of the vacation.

“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,” Atiku said.

“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.”

Atiku also sought to link the President’s trip to his campaign argument over the cost of living, saying millions of Nigerians were being restricted by economic hardship while Tinubu continued to travel.

“Millions of Nigerians are being grounded by hardship while their President is airborne. The people can barely afford to move, but the President keeps moving,” he said.

The former Vice President, who has made affordability a major plank of his 2027 campaign, reiterated his promise to make Nigeria affordable again if elected.

However, the PBAT Door-to-Door Movement 2027 pushed back against Atiku’s criticism, saying there was nothing unusual about a President proceeding on annual leave and that Tinubu’s temporary absence did not mean the machinery of government had stopped functioning.

In a statement issued on Sunday by its National Coordinator, Mr Sunday Asuku, the group accused Atiku of attempting to manufacture a political controversy out of a routine presidential vacation.

It maintained that Nigeria has functioning institutions and officials responsible for ensuring continuity in governance whenever the President is outside the country.

The group also challenged Atiku to devote greater attention to explaining his policy alternatives to Nigerians rather than making Tinubu’s vacation a campaign issue.

“After contesting for the presidency repeatedly since 1993, Atiku should be telling Nigerians what he intends to do differently, rather than spending his time attacking President Tinubu,” the movement said.

It particularly challenged the ADC candidate to explain his plans for the economy, security, employment and the cost of living as the country moves deeper into the 2027 election season.

The group also revisited the ongoing political dispute over petrol subsidy, accusing Atiku of inconsistency after he advocated subsidy removal during the 2023 election campaign but recently promised to restore a form of subsidy if elected in 2027.

According to the movement, Atiku should explain whether his latest subsidy proposal represents a fundamentally different economic policy or an attempt to capitalise politically on the hardship associated with the reforms undertaken by the Tinubu administration.

“INEC has rolled out the timetable. Atiku should go out and campaign and tell Nigerians what he has for them. Smearing the name of President Tinubu because he has gone on vacation will not work,” the group said.

The movement argued that presidents and other world leaders routinely take vacations without the temporary absence being interpreted as an abandonment of their constitutional responsibilities.

It urged Nigerians to judge Tinubu on the record of his administration and the impact of his policies rather than on political rhetoric surrounding a three-week annual leave.

The Presidency itself has characterised the trip as a working vacation, indicating that Tinubu would remain engaged with official responsibilities while away.

Onanuga said the President would return at the end of the three-week leave and immediately move into what is expected to be an intense campaign period ahead of the January 2027 presidential election.