. Visit aligns with Nigeria’s foreign policy framework, not vacation — Presidency
By John Paul
The Presidential Candidate of Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections, Mr. Peter Obi and the Presidency traded words yesterday over President Bola Tinubu’s visit to St Lucia.
Obi accused Tinubu of holidaying abroad when he is yet to tackle insecurity and other challenges facing the country.
He said this in a post on his X handle, which he titled, ‘No, Mr President, this is not the Time for Holidaying’.
But Presidency responded immediately, saying the visit was for strategic engagements, not a vacation.
The President’s official trip was announced by presidential Dpokesman, Mr Bayo Onanuga.
However, in a post on his X handle, Obi wondered how a leader could be holidaying at such a time the citizens were facing dire challenges.
According to him, what he has seen and witnessed in the last two years has left him in shock about poor governance delivery and apparent channeling of energy into politics and satisfaction of the elites, while the masses are languishing in want.
“In the past two years, Nigeria has lost more people to all sorts of criminality than a country that is officially at war.
“Without any twilight, Nigeria ranks among the most insecure places in the world. Nigerians are hungrier, and most people do not know where their next meal will come from. With such a gory picture of one’s country, you can imagine my bewilderment when I saw a news release from the Presidency announcing that President Bola Tinubu is departing Nigeria today for a visit to Saint Lucia in the Caribbean.
“The Presidency release merely confirmed an earlier news report since last week where the Prime Minister of the Caribbean Philip J. Pierre announced at a pre-cabinet press briefing on Monday, last week that
President Bola Tinubu is expected to depart Nigeria on Saturday, June 28, 2025, for Saint Lucia for official engagements and private leisure time.
“According to the Prime Minister’s announcement “two of these days, June 30 and July 1, will be dedicated to an official visit, with the remainder of the trip set aside as a personal vacation,” Obi said.
He said he told the person who drew his attention to the Caribbean story that it cannot be true and that the President was just coming back from a holiday in Lagos.
He said, “I didn’t want to believe that anybody in the position of authority, more so the President, on whose table the buck stops in this country, with all the myriad problems in virtually all areas of governance, would contemplate a leisure trip at this time.
“This is a President going for leisure when he couldn’t visit Minna, Niger state where over two hundred lives were lost and over 700 persons still missing in a flood natural disaster. I wonder which type of incident will happen before a President is attracted to show physical sympathy to the distressed citizens.”
Obi said the other state in crisis where over 200 lives were killed, the President yielded to public pressure and visited Makurdi the (Benue) state capital for what turned out to be a political jamboree than condolence as public holiday was declared and children made to line up to receive the President who couldn’t even reach the village, the scene of the brutal attack.
“In terms of land size, Makurdi is 937.4Km², which is over 59% bigger than St Lucia, which is 617 km², and Minna is 6789 square kilometres, which is 10 times bigger than St Lucia. St Lucia, with a population of 180,000, is less than half of Makurdi’s 489 839 and Minna, with 532, 000 is almost three times the population of St Lucia.
“I don’t think the situation in this country today calls for leisure for anybody in a position of authority, more so the President, on whose desk the buck stops. This regime has repeatedly shown its insensitivity and lack of passion for the populace, going by the way it prioritises the rich and shows indifference to the poor.
“One had expected the President to be asking God for extra hours in a day for the challenges, but what we see is a concentration of efforts in the 2027 election and on satisfying the wealthy while the mass poor continues to multiply in number,” Obi said.
Meanwhile, the Presidency, yesrerday justified the President’s visit, saying that it aligns with Nigeria’s foreign policy framework.
It added that the visit is for strategic engagements, not a vacation.
The president landed at Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia, early yesterday, prompting speculations in some quarters that he had gone to the Caribbean nation for a vacation.
Responding, however, in a statement on Sunday, presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga refuted the claims, describing them as misguided, mischievous, and uninformed.
“First, from the perspective of the Government of Saint Lucia, the visit by the Nigerian leader paves the way for the rekindling of our ancestral bonds, igniting a new era of diplomatic, cultural, and economic possibilities between our nations.
“Like many Caribbean nations, Saint Lucia has a significant population of African ancestry. In the mid-19th century, a wave of immigrants from present-day Nigeria arrived in Saint Lucia, bringing cultural and religious practices that persist today.
“Citizens of Saint Lucia are excited that President Tinubu has chosen to visit the island. They long to strengthen their bonds with African nations with which they share ancestral links,” he said.
According to the presidential aide, the surge in global uncertainty makes it imperative for Africa and the Caribbean to deepen cooperation among themselves.
He said, “Tinubu’s visit aligns with Nigeria’s Four D’s foreign policy framework: Democracy, Development, Diaspora, and Demography.
“As the Presidency stated, the visit supports the African Union’s Sixth Region agenda, which identifies the African diaspora as a key development partner.
“Nigeria actively fosters cultural exchange through collaboration in education, culture, and heritage preservation. Our cultural exports, including Afrobeats, Nollywood, and literature, are already making a significant impact on Saint Lucia and the wider Caribbean, enriching our shared cultural landscape.”